The Louisiana Clean Energy Complex gained a new lease on life this week after Air Products said it was in “advanced negotiations” with global fertilizer giant Yara on a 25-year deal to take most of the project’s blue hydrogen — and ultimately buy the ammonia-production assets outright.
Air Products put the multibillion-dollar facility planned for Darrow, LA, on hold back in May after a boardroom shakeup and a warning from new CEO Eduardo Menezes that the company had begun the process of “getting back to basics” and that it had to de-risk the project for it to have a chance to advance. The company took a $2.3 billion write-down earlier in 2025 as it exited three U.S. projects, including a green hydrogen project in New York.
Under the draft agreement, Air Products would build the complex, which would produce more than 750 MMcf/d of blue hydrogen, capturing about 95% of the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions during normal operations. About 80% of the plant’s blue hydrogen output would be upgraded into ammonia for Yara. The remaining volumes would slide into Air Products’ Gulf Coast network via its 700-mile hydrogen pipeline system (see map below), which stretches from Galveston Bay, TX, to New Orleans.
