CF Industries, the world’s leading ammonia producer, has announced a new carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) initiative at its Yazoo City, Mississippi, Complex. This project aims to cut the facility’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by up to 500,000 metric tons per year. The company has finalized a commercial agreement with ExxonMobil for the transportation and permanent geological storage of the CO2, with sequestration set to begin in 2028.
The project will see CF Industries invest around $100 million to construct a CO2 dehydration and compression unit at the Yazoo City Complex. This infrastructure will facilitate the capture, transport, and storage of up to 500,000 metric tons of CO2 annually, generated as a byproduct of ammonia production. Once sequestration starts, CF Industries anticipates qualifying for tax credits under Section 45Q of the Internal Revenue Code, which offers a credit for each metric ton of sequestered CO2.
Tony Will, President and CEO of CF Industries Holdings, Inc., expressed enthusiasm about the project, stating, “We are excited to advance this significant decarbonization effort, which will maintain CF Industries’ leadership in low-carbon ammonia production and support our 2030 emissions intensity reduction goal. This initiative will also provide our customers with nitrogen products that have a lower carbon footprint.”
With the new CCS project, the Yazoo City Complex will produce ammonia with a significantly reduced carbon intensity compared to traditional production methods. The ammonia produced is mainly converted into nitrogen fertilizers like urea ammonium nitrate (UAN) solutions and ammonium nitrate (AN), or into diesel exhaust fluid, which helps cut NOx emissions from diesel engines. AN is also used in mining as an explosive component. The demand for these lower-carbon products is expected to grow as industries seek to reduce their carbon emissions.
This Yazoo City CCS project is CF Industries’ second major CCS initiative and its second collaboration with ExxonMobil. The companies are also working on a CCS project at CF Industries’ Donaldsonville, Louisiana, facility, which will capture up to 2 million tons of CO2 annually. Sequestration at Donaldsonville is expected to commence in 2025. Together, the Yazoo City and Donaldsonville CCS projects will help CF Industries meet its 2030 emissions intensity reduction targets
