Tag: Project

ATOME says that it has signed a $465 million fixed-price, lump-sum engineering, procurement and construction contract with Casale for its 260,000 t/a green fertiliser plant at Villeta, Paraguay. ATOME believes that this is the first dedicated green fertiliser facility of this scale worldwide. The plant will use 100% renewable baseload power to generate hydrogen for ammonia to supply low carbon fertilizer for the Mercosur region. The project timeline is 38 months, with start-up and first ammonia production expected in 2028. Casale joins Yara, Hy24, AECOM, Natixis, IDB Invest and ANDE as partners to the project. In March ATOME signed non-binding heads of terms with Hy24’s managed Clean H2 Infra Fund for an up to $115 million investment in the project. A full definitive equity agreement is expected in Q2 2025, with final investment decision and full financial closure targeted by the end of the quarter. The full terms envisage a total funding for the project of approximately $625 million which includes not only the cost of construction but also financing, interest, transaction and supervision costs during the build period, with at least 60% coming from debt finance with the balance represented by project equity. ATOME says that negotiations on the definitive full offtake agreement with Yara International are “proceeding well”, with senior Yara representatives having had a successful visit to Paraguay at the end of January. It is anticipated that the definitive agreement will be signed by early Q2 2025, subject to necessary approvals.

Tecnicas Reunidas and Siemens Energy have been awarded the contract to carry out front-end engineering design (FEED) for a major green methanol project in La Robla, Spain. The consortium will work on the project for Spanish developer Reolum, part of a partnership that says it is building the largest green methanol plant in Europe. The La Robla Nueva Energia facility will combine biogenic CO2 from a co-located biomass-based cogeneration plant with green hydrogen to produce 140,000 t/a of low carbon methanol. Tecnicas Reunidas will focus on the biogenic carbon capture and methanol production units, while Siemens Energy will handle the renewable hydrogen unit. Johnson Matthey has been selected to supply its eMERALD methanol technology, while Mitsubishi Heavy Industries will license it CO2 capture technology for the project.

The Kazakh government has approved the construction of a new ammonia and urea plant in the country’s Mangistau region, on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea. Construction will be carried out by a joint venture between QazaqGaz National Company and ESTA Construction under Qazesta Fertilizers Ltd. The total investment for the project is $1.35 billion, with construction expected to be completed within three and a half years. The plant’s annual production capacity is projected to reach up to 700,000 t/a of urea and 420,000 t/a of ammonia, adding value to the country’s natural gas production and helping to substitute domestic production for foreign imports of nitrogen fertilizer. Despite a national demand of 3.2 million t/a, domestic production currently only meets about half of that need.

thyssenkrupp Uhde has been awarded a contract by Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilizers & Chemicals Ltd. (GNFC) for the construction of a weak nitric acid plant in Bharuch, Gujarat state. The scope of work includes license, basic engineering, detailed engineering, procurement, construction, commissioning, and start-up services. The plant will have a capacity of 600 t/d of weak nitric acid, and will use Uhde’s proven EnviNOx® technology to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by eliminating nitrogen oxides from nitric acid production. This will be the third weak nitric acid plant licensed by Uhde to GNFC’s Bharuch site, in a partnership going back more than three decades.

Fertilizer International talks with Jakob Liedberg, the CEO of innovative potassium sulphate producer Cinis Fertilizer.

PuraLoop is a new fertilizer created from recycled phosphorus. ICL’s Patricia Imas and Lucas van der Saag highlight its main benefits.

CRU’s Humphrey Knight visits EuroChem’s newly opened Serra do Salitre phosphate fertilizer complex in southern Brazil.

Liquid Wind has announced the development of a new 100,000 t/a green methanol project in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden, in collaboration with local energy company Övik Energi. Övik Energi’s combined heat and power plant in Örnsköldsvik was due to be the site of Ørsted’s FlagshipONE project, which was slated to produce 55,000 t/a of green methanol from 2025. A final investment decision (FID) was made in late 2022 when Ørsted bought out Liquid Wind’s 55% stake in the project, but the Danish offshore wind company chose to discontinue FlagshipONE in August 2024.

UAE-based chemicals and transition fuels hub TA’ZIZ has awarded an engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract worth $1.7 billion to engineering company Samsung E&A to build the UAE’s first methanol plant. The facility will be located at the Al Ruwais Industrial City in the western part of the emirate of Abu Dhabi. It is projected to produce 1.8 million t/a green methanol, powered by clean energy from the grid, with the plant scheduled for completion in 2028.

Casale is partnering with Indian renewable energy company Avaada Group to develop a 1,500 t/d green ammonia plant in Gopalpur, Odisha. This represents India’s largest grassroots green ammonia facility to date, and will be powered entirely by renewable energy. Casale will provide the ammonia process license, basic engineering package, proprietary equipment, and detailed engineering review, ensuring the facility operates at the highest levels of efficiency and sustainability. The plant will use Casale’s FlexAMMONIA technology, part of the FLEXIGREEN® portfolio.