Orica saves 1m t of emissions at Australian explosives site

Orica

ORICA has installed technology at its Kooragang Island chemicals site in Australia that has saved 1m t of emissions, significantly reducing the environmental footprint of one of the country’s largest emitters.

The site manufactures ammonia, nitric acid, and ammonium nitrate for explosives, fertilisers, and refrigerants. In 2022, it installed an abatement process – EnviNOx – licensed from thyssenkrupp Uhde at the three nitric acid plants at the Kooragang Island site in New South Wales. Along with a sister site at Yarwun in Queensland, Orica’s two facilities are responsible for around 37% of Australia’s total industrial chemical emissions.

The manufacture of nitric acid produces an unwanted byproduct – nitrous oxide (N2O) – that is 300 times more potent a greenhouse gas that CO2. Before 2022, this was released to the atmosphere but now the waste gas stream is passed through an EnviNOx reactor where a zeolite catalyst converts more than 99% of the N2O and nitrogen oxides into nitrogen and oxygen, a much cleaner tail gas that is then released.

Orica says the process prevents the equivalent of 567,000 t/y of CO2 being emitted from the Kooragang Island site, reducing its scope 1 and 2 emissions by 48%.

Last year Orica also installed the technology at it Yarwun plant. A spokesperson said the technology is estimated to reduce the site’s emissions by around 50%, saving the equivalent of 200,000 t/y of CO2.

The project was funded with A$13m (US$8.2m) from the New South Wales government’s net zero industry and innovation programme and A$25m from Orica financed by the country’s green investment bank. To incentivise investment in technology to reduce emissions, the project earns an Australian carbon credit from the government for every tonne of emission avoided, which Orica can then sell.   

Orica group executive Germán Morales said saving 1m t of emissions was a milestone in the company’s effort to be net zero by 2050 and “shows the power of partnership when private business and government work together”.

Penny Sharpe, New South Wales’ climate minister, said: “Reducing emissions from our big manufacturers will secure jobs for the future and improve our environment.”