ARENA provides fund for project to decarbonise ammonia plant through hydrogen

The government granted $13.7m to the project worth $38m.

The Australian government granted A$13.7m funding to Fortescue Future Industries and Incitec Pivot Limited to support the front-end engineering and design study for a large-scale hydrogen production facility that will decarbonise the ammonia plant in Gibson Island.

In a statement, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) said the A$38m project aims to deploy 500 megawatts of electrolysers that can produce up to 70,000 tonnes of renewable hydrogen annually.

The study will also include the conversion requirements for Incitec’s existing ammonia plant to use hydrogen and offtake around 400,000 tonnes of renewable ammonia annually.

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ARENA CEO Darren Miller said this project would accelerate the renewable ammonia industry development in the country.

This is Australia's first large-scale project to decarbonise an existing ammonia plant, owned by Incitec, using renewable hydrogen. If successful, electrolysers will be one of the largest globally.

The agency said ammonia production emits around 500 million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually, accounting for around 1.8% of the global carbon emissions and around the same level as the aviation industry.