Donaldsonville, Louisiana, United States–CF Industries’ Donaldsonville Complex, located on 1,400 acres along the west bank of the Mississippi River in southeastern Louisiana, has six world-scale ammonia plants, five urea plants, four nitric acid plants, three urea ammonium nitrate plants and a diesel exhaust fluid plant, serving customers on every continent and setting the world record for being the World’s largest ammonia production complex, according to the WORLD RECORD ACADEMY.
World’s largest ammonia production complex: world record in Donaldsonville, Louisiana
“Thyssen Krupp will provide 20 MW of alkaline electrolysis units to CF Industries for installation at their Donaldsonville ammonia production facility in Louisiana. Powered by renewable electricity purchased from the grid, CF plans to use the resulting green hydrogen to produce 20,000 tonnes of green ammonia per year (around 0.5% of Donaldsonville’s current capacity), starting from 2023,” the Ammonia Energy Association sys.
“Success in this initial installation and an improving business case will hopefully see electrolysis capacity and green ammonia production at Donaldsonville expanded well beyond these numbers in the coming years. This “kick-off” project is the first step in CF Industries’ commitment to becoming a net-zero emissions organisation by 2050, first reported on by Ammonia Energy in October 2020.”
World’s largest ammonia production complex: world record in Donaldsonville, Louisiana
“CF Industries Holdings, Inc., the world’s largest producer of ammonia, announced it is evaluating the feasibility of constructing a low-carbon clean ammonia production plant at its Blue Point Complex in Ascension Parish. The proposed new facility is expected to cost over $2 billion and would be developed jointly by CF Industries and POSCO Holdings, South Korea’s largest steelmaker,” the Louisiana Economic Development says.
“If the project moves forward as outlined, CF Industries expects to create 50 direct ew jobs with average annual salaries of more than $106,000, while retaining 541 current positions. Louisiana Economic Development estimates the project would result in an additional 177 new indirect jobs, for a total of 227 potential new jobs in the Capital Region.
“CF Industries and POSCO expect to complete an initial front-end engineering design (FEED) study on the proposed site in the second half of 2024 and make a final investment decision for the project shortly thereafter. Construction and commissioning of a new world-scale capacity ammonia plant typically takes approximately four years from that point.
“The project under consideration is part of CF Industries’ commitment to produce ammonia for clean energy applications while decarbonizing its ammonia production process. In 2022, it announced two major projects in Louisiana; a $198.5 million plan to add carbon capture and sequestration capability to its existing ammonia production facility in Donaldsonville and a proposed $ billion world-scale low-carbon ammonia production facility in Ascension Parish.”
World’s largest ammonia production complex: world record in Donaldsonville, Louisiana
“The world’s largest producer of ammonia has signed on to the shipping industry’s leading clean-fuel technology consortium, the Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping,” The Maritime Executive says.
“The center announced Monday that American ammonia producer CF Industries has signed on as a partner, bringing in a new future-fuel supplier to the consortium. The supply of green hydrogen-based fuels – like green ammonia and green methanol – is one of the primary challenges facing the shipping industry as it works to develop zero-carbon propulsion at scale.
“CF Industries has been making and trading ammonia from conventional natural gas feedstock for decades, and it has plans to bring production of nearly two million tonnes of blue ammonia (carbon capture abatement of conventional production) online by 202. It recently announced a partnership with Mitsui for a purpose-built blue ammonia plant on the U.S. Gulf Coast, which will emit about 60 percent less carbon dioxide per tonne of production.”
World’s largest ammonia production complex: world record in Donaldsonville, Louisiana
CF Industries Average Annual Gross Ammonia Capacity By Location
Donaldsonville (Louisiana) – 4,335,000 tons (largest ammonia production complex in the world)
Medicine Hat (Alberta) – 1,230,000 tons (largest ammonia production complex in Canada)
Port Neal (Iowa) – 1,230,000 tons
Verdigris (Oklahoma) – 1,210,000 tons
Billingham (UK) – 590,000 tons
Yazoo City (Mississippi) – 570,000 tons
Courtright (Ontario) – 500,000 tons
Woodward (Oklahoma) – 480,000 tons
Point Lisas* (Trinidad) – 360,000 tons
(Source: CF Industries Holdings)
“At our core, CF Industries is a manufacturer of ammonia. Ammonia is most often used as a fertilizer itself or is upgraded into other nitrogen fertilizers, such as granular ure and urea ammonium nitrate solution,” the CF Industries Holdings says.
“Like other producers of ammonia, we use the Haber Bosch process, considered one of the most impactful innovations of the 20th century, which synthesizes nitrogen from the air with hydrogen. In addition to Green Revolution seed enhancements and farming practice improvements, the growing use of nitrogen and other fertilizers dramatically improved food production in the second half of the 1900s. The annual rate of people dying due to famine globally per decade declined nearly 99% from the 1960s to the 2010s.
“As such, our team and the products we make play a direct and vast role in ensuring the world’s population has enough food to eat. Our fertilizer also limits the destruction of forests, which play a role in offsetting greenhouse gas emissions by sequestering, or naturally capturing, carbon dioxide (CO2). Ammonia and its upgraded products are also used for emissions control and other industrial processes.”
“CF Idustries’ Donaldsonville Complex is located on 1,400 acres along the west bank of the Mississippi River in southeastern Louisiana. It is the world’s largest and most flexible ammonia production facility, serving customers on every continent,” the official website says.
“Today, the site has six world-scale ammonia plants, five urea plants, four nitric acid plants, three urea ammonium nitrate plants and a diesel exhaust fluid plant. The site ships product to customers via the NuStar ammonia pipeline, rail, truck barge (river and ocean), and deep water vessel.
Products:
Ammonia
Granular Urea
Urea Ammonium Nitrate (UAN)
Diesel Exhaust Fluid
Annual Capacity: Nearly 8 million tons of nitrogen products for agricultural and industrial use annually depending on product mix.
Employees: There are approximately 485 permanent employees and 500 contract employees at the Donaldsonville complex.”