PERTH (miningweekly.com)  - Iron-ore miner Fortescue Metals is on track to make a final investment decision (FID) on the green ammonia plant, in Bell Bay, Tasmania, by the end of the year.

Fortescue Future Industries in November last year announced that it was investigating the development of a green ammonia plant in Tasmania, which had been announced as a successful participant in the Tasmanian government’s Hydrogen Industry Development Funding programme. 

The project envisages the construction of a 250 MW green hydrogen plant at the Bell Bay Industrial Precinct with green ammonia production capacity of 250 000 t/y for domestic and international export. It has the capacity to be one of the world’s largest green hydrogen plants, powered entirely by Tasmanian renewable energy.

Fortescue director for energy Rob Grant told the Australian Oil and Gas conference on Thursday that the Tasmanian plant would be the first cap for Fortescue Future Industries.

He noted that despite Fortescue’s efforts to decarbonise its Pilbara operation, the company had looked to Tasmania as its first avenue to invest in the green hydrogen industry, given the existing infrastructure capabilities in Tasmania for green energy.

“We are working on the approvals and early contractor involvement phase, and aiming to have early orders by the middle of the year and full FID by the end of this year,” Grant told delegates at the conference in Perth.

The project supports Fortescue’s industry-leading operational target to be net zero by 2040, and builds on the company’s investment in green hydrogen production and technologies, including a partnership with the CSIRO for the development of new hydrogen technologies, including a world first membrane technology which provides the potential for large scale hydrogen extraction from ammonia, a A$32-million hydrogen mobility project at Christmas Creek comprising the construction of a renewable hydrogen refuelling facility and the deployment of a fleet of hydrogen fuel cell passenger coaches from mid-2021, and a partnership with ATCO Australia to build and operate the first combined green hydrogen production and refuelling facility in Western Australia.

The company has also inked a memorandum of understanding with Hyundai Motor Co and CSIRO to advance renewable hydrogen technology for domestic transport.