Fertiliser manufacturer Yara has signed a deal with Linde Engineering for the latter to “build a world-scale carbon dioxide (CO₂) liquefaction plant in Sluiskil, the Netherlands.” The plant will be a part of Yara’s drive to create clean ammonia, and the facility will be built next to Yara’s existing ammonia plant at the site, with start-up scheduled for 2026.

As part of the overall project, 800,000 tonnes of CO₂ will be captured annually at the site, liquefied, loaded onto specialised ships, and then transported to a storage site off the coast of western Norway. Linde Engineering CEO Juergen Nowicki said of the work that it shows his company’s “leading position in terms of technology and execution know-how for projects of this scale. It is also an important step on the path to net-zero for the fertiliser industry.”

His counterpart Michael Schlaug, Vice President of Yara Netherlands, said of the project that “Yara, as a frontrunner, has found the project to be complex yet incredibly valuable,” with the initiative “paving the way for CCS as a technology in Europe and giving impetus to a clean hydrogen economy.” The Sluiskil site has been in operation since 1929 and is Europe’s largest ammonia and mineral fertiliser production site, currently producing 3.2 million tonnes of CO₂ per year, 1.4 million tonnes of which is used in greenhouses for food production.

The CO₂ capture facility will thus cut out 0.8 million tonnes of the remaining 1.8 million tonnes. The project will be of interest to fertiliser makers worldwide.