Mitsui & Co., Ltd. and CF Industries Holdings, Inc. announced their intention to jointly develop a greenfield ammonia production facility in the United States. The new facility will produce blue ammonia by leveraging carbon capture and sequestration processes to reduce carbon emissions by more than 60% compared to conventional ammonia. Demand for blue ammonia is expected to grow significantly as a decarbonized energy source, both for its hydrogen content and as a fuel itself.

Mitsui and CF Industries have taken the following steps to advance the project: The parties have secured an exclusive right to acquire a site in the U.S. Gulf Coast region suitable to construct an export-oriented blue ammonia production facility. The parties are concluding selection of a technology provider for the blue ammonia production capacity. CF Industries will have 52% and Mitsui will have 48% ownership of the intended joint venture in which the parties will have proportional capital investment and economic returns.

Mitsui will lead the marketing and distribution for the blue ammonia into Asia. CF Industries will be responsible for plant operations and maintenance. The companies anticipate that a front-end engineering design (FEED) study will commence shortly.

A FEED study typically requires approximately 9 to 12 months to complete. As a result, the companies expect to make a final investment decision on constructing the blue ammonia production facility in 2023. Construction and commissioning of new world scale ammonia capacity typically takes roughly 4 years from that point.

As a result, the new project would be expected to begin production in 2027 at the earliest. In addition, CF Industries expects to produce up to 2 million tons per year of blue and green ammonia at its existing facilities beginning in 2024. Recognizing the growing demand for blue ammonia in Asia, the parties are discussing a commercial expansion of the joint venture to leverage Mitsui's considerable marketing and distribution capabilities into that market.