OCI partners with Linde for blue ammonia facility

OCI and Linde have signed a long-term agreement under which Linde will supply clean hydrogen and nitrogen to OCI’s new blue ammonia facility under development in Beaumont, Texas, US.

 OCI is a global producer and distributor of hydrogen-based products, and Linde is a global industrial gases and engineering company.

OCI said that Linde will build, own, and operate an on-site complex which will include auto thermal reforming with carbon capture, plus a large air separation plant, and this new complex will be integrated into Linde’s extensive Gulf Coast industrial gas infrastructure. Linde will supply clean hydrogen and nitrogen to OCI’s 1.1 million tonnes per annum blue ammonia plant.

OCI informed that Linde will supply OCI with clean hydrogen, by sequestering more than 1.7 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions each year. OCI will then upgrade the hydrogen to produce blue ammonia, which allows it to materially reduce the carbon footprint of its downstream customers along the value chain across a wide range of industries.

Linde’s total investment will be approximately $1.8 billion, and OCI’s total investment cost is expected to be below $1 billion, including spending on upsized utilities and available land to allow for doubling to 2.2 mtpa capacity in the future. The OCI project is expected to start up in 2025. In 2022, engineering company KBR secured a technology contract for the OCI project.