Yara and Engie to develop Project Yuri in Australia

Yara Clean Ammonia has collaborated with ENGIE to develop Project Yuri, which will be built on the existing Yara Pilbara lease and adjacent to the company’s world-scale anhydrous ammonia production facility.

The Australian Government recognised the project’s significance with an AU$ 47.5 million grant through ARENA’s Renewable Hydrogen Deployment Funding Round.

The Western Australian State Government has also supported Yuri with an AU$ 2 million grant contribution from the State’s Renewable Hydrogen Fund.

The Yuri project includes a 10 MW electrolyser, 18 MW solar PV and battery storage. Once completed, the project will be one of Australia’s largest electrolysers, producing up to 640 tonnes of green hydrogen each year.

Yuri Operations Pty Ltd will build the renewable hydrogen facility and supply the green hydrogen to Yara Clean Ammonia. The construction is scheduled to commence later this year, in October 2022. Renewable hydrogen production is scheduled to commence and be supplied to the ammonia plant in 2024.

ENGIE has executed an agreement with Mitsui & Co., Ltd., under which Mitsui has agreed to acquire a 28% stake in the joint venture company for the Yuri project, subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions under the agreement. ENGIE and Mitsui intend to operate the Yuri project through this joint venture company.

A consortium of Technip Energies and Monford Group has been awarded the Engineering, Procurement, Construction and Commissioning (EPCC) contract for the renewable hydrogen plant.

The development of Project Yuri has also paved the way for the Yara Pilbara Fertilizers ammonia plant to be recognised under the Smart Energy Council Zero Carbon Certification Scheme.

The plant has been given pre-certification as a result of the commitment to produce renewable ammonia from energy produced by on-site solar PV. The Yara plant is the first green ammonia project to receive the Council’s certification.

Bureau Veritas, a world leader in testing, inspection and certification, were engaged to undertake the technical assessments for the pre-certification.

Magnus Krogh Ankarstrand, Yara Clean Ammonia President,  said, “The Yara processing plant would be the first established operational facilities in Western Australia to receive and use green hydrogen molecules to produce clean ammonia.”

Laurent Trost, GM of Yara Pilbara, commented, “Project Yuri was an exciting and transformational project for the company’s processing operations in the Pilbara which comprise the ammonia plant and a technical ammonium nitrate facility.”

Andrew Hyland, ENGIE Australia and New Zealand CEO, said, “We have a strong pipeline of renewables, storage and hydrogen projects in Australia; as each one of these projects reaches financial close, construction and commissioning, we get closer to decarbonising our economy and realising our ambitious net zero targets.”