A $4.6 billion plant will make ammonia ‘the fuel of the future’ for a plant to produce liquid natural gas, the first of its kind in North America, the governor of Ontario, Doug Ford, said yesterday.
The project, which should be operational by 2025, is expected to create about 1,000 jobs and help drive down greenhouse gas emissions from the province.
“This is a historic first in North America,” Finance Minister Vic Fedeli said of the ammonia plant, to be located at the Port Arthur Refinery in Ontario, which currently produces a range of products from petrochemicals to fertilizers.
“It’s an example for the rest of the country,” he said.
Fedeli added that the facility would be part of a larger natural gas plant that also will convert the exhaust gases from the old ammonia plant, but the government is in the final stages of negotiating with two existing natural gas producer companies, AltaGas and Trillium Energy.
The project is one of three proposed projects that the government has earmarked to help meet its climate change goals, which were revealed after it took the unusual step of announcing a long-term plan to tackle carbon dioxide emissions by 2030.
The government had expected that this would be the year it would unveil a plan, but that date was pushed back several occasions, including an announcement on June 18 that would have revealed the details of the new plan.
The government was forced to amend its plan after the former Conservative government’s plan to curb emissions hit a stumbling block over the Green Energy Act, which is expected to go into effect in 2017 and requires companies to take new steps to reduce CO2 emissions.
In April, the minister for environment, Lisa Raitt, said the Green Energy Act would be a “significant shift” in the way industries operate.
The government announced a series of measures, including its plan to phase out coal-fired power plants, during its April climate change announcement.
Fedeli also highlighted the economic benefit of the project, saying that the province is expected to receive more than $2 billion in additional taxes from the sale of the ammonia and natural gas.
The existing ammonia plant in Port Arthur produces over 2 million kilograms of
