Air Products ‘Getting Back to Basics,’ Delays Louisiana Blue Hydrogen Project

The U.S. outlook for low-carbon hydrogen was bright and sunny just a year or two ago, with billions in federal funding and policy support, but to no one’s surprise, things have darkened considerably this year. Several clean-energy initiatives have faced resistance from Republicans in Washington, with the budget reconciliation bill currently making its way through Congress on track to produce the most significant changes yet. In today’s RBN blog, we’ll look at how the bill could dramatically scale back the 45V tax credit for hydrogen production and deal a mighty blow to dozens of projects under development. 

The global push to decarbonize power generation, shipping and other energy-intensive sectors of the economy and the Biden administration’s efforts to heavily incentivize the development of low-carbon energy sources have resulted in a growing list of big clean ammonia projects in the U.S. Almost all of these proposed multibillion-dollar production facilities are located along the Texas-Louisiana coast, a region that offers easy access to natural gas supply, carbon sequestration sites, and export markets. In today’s RBN blog, we continue our look at the burgeoning market for “green” and (especially) “blue” ammonia with a review of the largest production facilities now under development.

Rising global interest in clean ammonia — plus the potential for earning generous federal tax credits — spurred a host of project announcements over the past couple of years, with the first new production capacity slated to start up as soon as 2025. But reality is setting in regarding the pace of clean-ammonia demand growth and the financial, regulatory and other challenges of developing complicated, big-dollar projects, particularly those involving carbon capture and sequestration (CCS). In today’s RBN blog, we provide an update on the major clean ammonia proposals we’ve been tracking.