OCI Global (OCI), a world-leading producer of ammonia and methanol has announced an agreement to offtake green hydrogen from New Fortress Energy Inc.’s (NFE) ZeroParks beginning in 2025, following a competitive bidding process.
The agreement will allow OCI Global to significantly scale up green ammonia production capacity to approximately 160,000 tons per year in Beaumont, Texas.
This agreement follows the 100-megawatt (MW) electrolyzer system order from Electric Hydrogen Co. (EH2) announced by New Fortress Energy. The green hydrogen will be produced by ZeroParks, NFE’s hydrogen business, using proton exchange membrane (PEM) technology and delivered to OCI’s facilities in Beaumont, Texas where it will then be converted into green ammonia.
NFE’s first green hydrogen project, ZeroPark I, will come online in two phases; the first phase in 2025, allowing OCI to produce approximately 80,000 tons per year of green ammonia and the second, in 2026, doubling OCI’s production capacity to 160,000 tons per year.
OCI produced its first tons of hydrogen-based green ammonia earlier this year at its Egypt Green facility, which is owned by Fertiglobe, a strategic partnership between OCI Global and ADNOC. Scaling its global green hydrogen-based production with capacity in the U.S. confirms OCI’s leadership in low carbon and renewable ammonia to meet the coming demand from emerging applications including as a shipping fuel and for power generation, and to decarbonize existing end-markets including the agricultural and industrial space. Green hydrogen can also be used to produce green methanol, the fuel choice for the decarbonization of shipping and road fuels today.
The new plans complement the company’s large-scale blue ammonia project in Texas, in partnership with Linde plc (LIN), which is scheduled to begin production in 2025. The new ammonia site has been developed so it can use green hydrogen as a feedstock in the future to further increase OCI’s green ammonia production capabilities.
By leveraging its existing infrastructure, OCI can scale production to meet growing demand at pace and without significant capital expenditure, while leveraging the incentives offered under the Inflation Reduction Act’s 45V program.
Nassef Sawiris, Executive Chair, OCI Global said:
“Today’s announcement cements OCI’s continued focus on the energy transition and hydrogen fuels, representing another milestone in our decarbonization journey as a business. Ammonia and methanol are the logical hydrogen carriers to drive this transition and the coming demand from the transportation sector provides the foundation for our scale-up in production and new technologies. NFE is an established energy player and developer and we are excited to start this partnership with them at our Beaumont complex, which is ideally located in the center of the Gulf Coast, allowing us to continue to increase and optimize our over-the-fence feedstock portfolio.”
Wes Edens, Chairman and CEO, New Fortress Energy said:
“OCI is a leading global producer and distributor of hydrogen-based products and this announcement showcases our focus on developing green hydrogen projects of scale to successfully decarbonize hard-to-abate corners of the global economy such as agriculture, power, and marine fuels. OCI is already at the forefront of decarbonization efforts in the international arena which made them a clear and solid choice as a partner.”
