Chile green ammonia developer working on 350,000t/y Tarapacá project

Chilean developer FreePower Group is working on an early-stage green ammonia project in far north Tarapacá region, CEO Juan Guillermo Walker told BNamericas.

In the green hydrogen sphere, FreePower is today focused on projects geared to ammonia, an energy carrier and industrial feedstock.

The Tarapacá initiative, Punta Patache, is the third FreePower project of its kind, the others being two ammonia projects in far south Magallanes region that are edging closer to the environmental review submission phase.

Planned ammonia production capacity at Punta Patache is 350,000t/y, leveraging 1.3GW of solar capacity, says Walker.

“It is located strategically close to the concentrates exporting ports of [copper mines] Collahuasi and Quebrada Blanca, facilitating the production and transport of hydrogen and ammonia,” he added. “In general, the portfolio of FreePower continues growing with very positive results, consolidating our leadership in sustainable energy.”

Overall, some 70 projects have been publicly announced in Chile, some targeting the export market, some domestic users, others both. Along with environmental licenses, projects will need multiple others. In a boost to the local ecosystem, Chile’s defense ministry has started issuing projects with maritime concessions, vital for those with desalination, export terminal and subsea pipeline components. 

Projects in the vanguard are chiefly export-focused and geared to green ammonia and synthetic fuels (e-methanol and the likes of SAF), products with existing infrastructure and applications and which can be transported and stored more easily than pure hydrogen.

Today, the environmental review phase pipeline comprises HIF’s US$830mn Cabo Negro (e-methanol and SAF), MAE’s US$2.5bn Volta (green ammonia), Austria Energy’s US$11.0bn HNH Energy (green ammonia) and AES Andes’ US$10.0bn INNA (green ammonia). A Cabo Negro wind project, Faro del Sur, was also submitted.

Global demand for ammonia could triple to 600Mt/y by 2045, creating opportunities for producers of low-carbon variants such as Chile.

A central challenge of green hydrogen industry developers in Chile and elsewhere is driving down production costs and securing offtakers, along with other hurdles that need clearing in spheres such as permitting, logistics infrastructure and regulations.

BNamericas is due to publish a special hydrogen report in February.