Yara to explore Pilbara CCS with Angel JV

Yara Pilbara and Woodside Energy will explore the feasibility of carbon capture and storage, to mitigate the emissions impact of Yara’s existing Karratha facilities.

A memorandum of understanding between the Woodside-operated Angel CCS joint venture and Yara will lead the pair to look into the development of a large-scale, multi-user CCS hub which could be used to decarbonise Yara’s Burrup Strategic Industrial Area operations.

Yara will undertake a technical feasibility study into adding carbon capture to its processing facility at its Pilbara plant.

Yara currently produces 800,000 tonnes of ammonia per annum using gas as a feedstock from its plant, with output sold into the fertiliser market and used for the production of industrial explosives under a joint venture with Orica.

The company said it was still developing Project Yuri, which will convert renewably generated hydrogen into ammonia in the Pilbara.

Project Yuri’s development has been stalled at times, and Yara Australia general manager Laurent Trost said last year that the company was exploring its options beyond green hydrogen – including CCS.

The company is now working towards commissioning Project Yuri in 2025, having originally planned to have it up and running early this year when its investment decision was made in 2022.

Mr Trost said CCS could make up part of a phased approach for the fertiliser producer, as it seeks to meet its emission targets in the short-to-medium term.

“Carbon capture and storage for our current operations in the Burrup Strategic Industrial Area would deliver swifter and more immediate benefit in cutting our CO2 emissions by around 75 per cent as we scale up green hydrogen,” he said.

“The planned CCS solution represents and industrial circular economy in action.

“Steam methane reforming processes utilise gas and when partnered with CCS, our value-added projects like ammonia and ammonium nitrate are substantially decarbonised, by returning the captured CO2 from the Australian gas feedstock back to permanent geological storage in depleted Australian fields.”

Woodside vice president carbon solutions Jayne Baird said the MoU demonstrated the role CCS could play in decarbonising Pilbara industry.

“A multi-user CCS hub near Karratha would be ideally located to aggregate emissions from various existing industrial emissions sources across the Pilbara, providing users with advantaged access to a local, low cost and large-scale emissions abatement solution – a competitive advantage as jurisdictions around the world implement emissions reduction targets,” she said.

Ms Baird said a CCS hub could also support proposed new low-carbon industries, including those in hydrogen, ammonia and green steel.

The initial size of the proposed facility remains subject to the completion studies, but Woodside said it could have processing capacity up to five million tonnes of carbon dioxide per annum.

The Angel JV is also exploring the potential to service international customers from the facility, in a move to help reduce the emissions of its trading partners.

The Angel CCS JV consists of Woodside, BP Developments, Mitsubishi Corporation and Mitsui & Co under their Japan Australia LNG JV, Shell Australia and Chevron.