Released November 21, 2024 | GALWAY, IRELAND
en
Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--Australia's largest planned green hydrogen and ammonia project is being abandoned after the fertilizer company Incitec Pivot Limited (Southbank, Australia) revealed that it plans to sell the land that was earmarked as the location.
In its annual results, the company confirmed that it was selling the Gibson Island site, in Queensland, which is home to an ammonia production facility that has been shuttered since January 2023. The plant was closed due to the high cost of methane gas feedstock and a deal was struck with the green energy arm of Australian mining giant Fortescue Metals Group Limited (Perth) to build a 500-megawatt (MW) electrolyser that would be capable of producing 70,000 tonnes per year (T/yr) of green hydrogen that the plant would use to make 400,000 T/yr of green ammonia. The US$250 million project would have been Australia's first large-scale green hydrogen project. Fortescue had received almost US$9 million from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) to help fund a US$38 million front-end engineering and design study. It has not commented on Incitec's decision to sell the Gibson Island site. Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Chemical Processing project and plant databases can click here for the project report and click here for the plant profile.
"We have confirmed the closure of the Gibson Island primary distribution center (PDC) and will be transitioning to a third-party facility operated by Qube at the Port of Brisbane," Incitec Chief Executive Officer Mauro Neves said during the company's annual financial disclosure. "The decision to relocate the PDC allows us to progress our plans to sell our real estate holdings at Gibson Island."
Fortescue has repeatedly delayed signing off on the project over the past year and missed three deadlines for a final investment decision (FID) at the end of last December, the end of February and the end of March. The project was to have used Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) electrolyser Plug Power (NYSE:PLUG) (Latham, New York) but the companies had a public falling out last year over their collaboration on Fortescue's 2-gigawatt (GW) Gladstone Electrolyser Manufacturing (GEM) facility in Queensland. Earlier this year, Industrial Info reported on the commissioning of the GEM facility, the country's largest hydrogen electrolyser-manufacturing operation. Featuring an automated assembly line, it will have the capacity to produce more than 2 gigawatts (GW) of Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) electrolyser stacks annually. The electrolyser output will be enough to produce 200,000 tonnes of green hydrogen each year. Fortescue is aiming to produce 15 million tonnes of green hydrogen per year by 2030. For additional information, see April 11, 2024, article - Australia Opens First Hydrogen Electrolyser Plant.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking over 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 Trillion (USD).
In its annual results, the company confirmed that it was selling the Gibson Island site, in Queensland, which is home to an ammonia production facility that has been shuttered since January 2023. The plant was closed due to the high cost of methane gas feedstock and a deal was struck with the green energy arm of Australian mining giant Fortescue Metals Group Limited (Perth) to build a 500-megawatt (MW) electrolyser that would be capable of producing 70,000 tonnes per year (T/yr) of green hydrogen that the plant would use to make 400,000 T/yr of green ammonia. The US$250 million project would have been Australia's first large-scale green hydrogen project. Fortescue had received almost US$9 million from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) to help fund a US$38 million front-end engineering and design study. It has not commented on Incitec's decision to sell the Gibson Island site. Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Chemical Processing project and plant databases can click here for the project report and click here for the plant profile.
"We have confirmed the closure of the Gibson Island primary distribution center (PDC) and will be transitioning to a third-party facility operated by Qube at the Port of Brisbane," Incitec Chief Executive Officer Mauro Neves said during the company's annual financial disclosure. "The decision to relocate the PDC allows us to progress our plans to sell our real estate holdings at Gibson Island."
Fortescue has repeatedly delayed signing off on the project over the past year and missed three deadlines for a final investment decision (FID) at the end of last December, the end of February and the end of March. The project was to have used Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) electrolyser Plug Power (NYSE:PLUG) (Latham, New York) but the companies had a public falling out last year over their collaboration on Fortescue's 2-gigawatt (GW) Gladstone Electrolyser Manufacturing (GEM) facility in Queensland. Earlier this year, Industrial Info reported on the commissioning of the GEM facility, the country's largest hydrogen electrolyser-manufacturing operation. Featuring an automated assembly line, it will have the capacity to produce more than 2 gigawatts (GW) of Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) electrolyser stacks annually. The electrolyser output will be enough to produce 200,000 tonnes of green hydrogen each year. Fortescue is aiming to produce 15 million tonnes of green hydrogen per year by 2030. For additional information, see April 11, 2024, article - Australia Opens First Hydrogen Electrolyser Plant.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking over 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 Trillion (USD).
