The purpose of this report is to provide information regarding the QNP green hydrogen to ammonia project feasibility study.
Report extract
Queensland Nitrates Pty Ltd (QNP) partnered with Neoen and Worley to undertake a feasibility study into the development of Australia’s first green hydrogen to ammonia plant at QNP’s Moura site. The proposed facility includes a 30 MW electrolyser and a small-scale ammonia plant consuming 208 GWh of electricity. The plant will produce 3,500 tonnes/Year (T/y) of green hydrogen to yield 20,000 T/y of green ammonia to displace ammonia which is currently purchased by QNP for use at its ammonium nitrate facility at Moura.
QNP’s Moura facility produces ammonium nitrate which is the key ingredient in explosives that are used in the Queensland mining industry. The current facility produces hydrogen via steam reforming of natural gas. The addition of nitrogen under suitable conditions (i.e. Haber-Bosch process) yields ammonia which is subsequently used to manufacture ammonium nitrate. QNP currently has an imbalance between ammonia production capacity and ammonium nitrate unit capacity and makes up the shortfall in ammonia production through the purchase of ammonia.
The “QNP green hydrogen to ammonia project” seeks to displace purchased ammonia by manufacturing “green” ammonia on site. The precursor to green ammonia production is the production of electrolytic hydrogen through disassociating water using renewable electricity.
QNP will utilise 100% of the hydrogen produced in the project for internal use to manufacture ammonium nitrate to satisfy existing contracts, hence QNP does not need to seek new markets for either the hydrogen, ammonia or the downstream ammonium nitrate that will be produced,
The feasibility study explored whether aligning a series of existing mature and commercialised processes in novel alignment could yield a technically and commercially feasible project. The study found that the technologies themselves are technically feasible. Much of the learnings from the feasibility study arose from the novel alignment of the renewable energy generation assets, the electrolysers, the hydrogen storage and the ammonia plant.
