CF Industries, ExxonMobil Partner for CO2 Capture, Sequestration Project

CF Industries is progressing with a carbon-capture and sequestration (CCS) project at its complex in Yazoo City, MS, cutting the facility’s emitted atmospheric CO₂ by up to 500,000 metric tons per year. ExxonMobil also signed an agreement with the company to transport and store the complex’s CO₂ in geological formations.

“We are pleased to advance another significant decarbonization project that will continue CF Industries’ low-carbon ammonia production while also helping us achieve our 2030 emissions intensity reduction goal,” said Tony Will, President and CEO, CF Industries Holdings. “This decarbonization project will increase the availability of nitrogen products with a lower-carbon intensity for customers focused on reducing the carbon footprint of their businesses.”

An approximately $100 million investment in the Yazoo City Complex will allow CF Industries to:

• Construct a CO₂ dehydration and compression unit
• Capture, transport, and store up to 500,000 metric tons of CO₂
• Qualify for one 45Q tax credit per metric ton of CO₂ stored

Sequestration, which is expected to begin in 2028, will allow the Yazoo City Complex to manufacture ammonia-based low-carbon-intensity products, including nitrogen fertilizers such as urea ammonium nitrate solutions and ammonium nitrate (AN). In April 2024, CF Industries and JERA agreed to assess the development of green, low-carbon ammonia production capacity and evaluate a possible agreement to construct a 1.4 million metric ton capacity low-carbon ammonia plant at the Blue Point Complex in Louisiana.

Ammonium nitrate; Image Credits: CF Industries

JERA is examining a 48% ownership stake in the project and an agreement to procure more than 500,000 metric tons of low-carbon ammonia per year—an effort to satisfy demand for low-carbon fuels in Japan. Both CF Industries and JERA previously signed a memorandum of understanding to explore the joint project development, sales, and purchase of low-carbon ammonia. The companies plan to execute a final investment decision for the project within a year, priming the plant for ammonia production by 2028.

CF Industries and ExxonMobil are also progressing with a second CCS project at a facility in Donaldsonville, LA, which will sequester up to 2 million tons of CO₂ per year. Sequestration at the Donaldsonville site will commence in 2025.

In March 2024, ExxonMobil and JERA announced a potential low-carbon hydrogen and ammonia production project in the United States—more specifically, at ExxonMobil’s low-carbon hydrogen production plant at the Baytown Complex in Houston, TX.

According to the terms of the PFA, JERA will explore ownership participation in the project via purchase of the Baytown hydrogen production plant. The deal also considers JERA’s procurement of approximately 500,000 tons of low-carbon ammonia per year, which will be produced at the Baytown Complex and transported for demand in Japan.

Upon completion, the Baytown plant is expected to have an annual production capacity of approximately 900,000 tons of low-carbon hydrogen and more than 1 million tons of low-carbon ammonia. ExxonMobil slated the start of production for 2028.