Mitsubishi to Team Up with Port of Corpus Christi on US Ammonia Plant

Japanese trading company Mitsubishi Corp said on Wednesday it had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Port of Corpus Christi Authority of the United States to collaborate on large-scale production facility of fuel ammonia in Texas.

The move comes as part of Mitsubishi's efforts to create global supply chains of the clean fuel to help Japan's and other Asian countries' attempts to combat climate change, the company's senior vice president, Hiroki Haba, told the International Conference on Fuel Ammonia.

Ammonia is used for fertilizer and industrial materials, but is also seen as a future energy source, along with hydrogen. It does not emit carbon dioxide when burned, although it creates emissions if it is made with fossil fuel.

Other details of the MoU were not disclosed, but the two parties will look into building the production facility, with the aim for it to start operation in early 2030s and boost annual output capacity to 10 million tonnes by mid-2030s, a source at Mitsubishi, who declined to be named, said.

They would look into the possibility of making low-emission ammonia, produced from natural gas but eliminating emissions by capturing and storing the emitted carbon nearby, the source said.

Not far from the area, some companies pump carbon into oil reservoirs to boost pressure and increase production, a practice known as enhanced oil recovery, the source said.

Japan is aiming to expand its fuel ammonia demand to 3 million tonnes a year by 2030 and 30 million tonnes by 2050 from zero now, and create global supply chains of the fuel in a bid to slash carbon dioxide emissions and tackle climate change.

(Reuters - Reporting by Yuka Obayashi. Editing by Jane Merriman)