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Indiana project aims to cut fertilizer imports and strengthen regional supply chains

The CEO of Wabash Valley Resources says farmers in the eastern Corn Belt will have a new domestic source of nitrogen fertilizer by the end of the decade.

Dan Williams says the recent closure of a $1.5 billion U.S. Department of Energy loan is the final hurdle in moving forward with retooling a gasification facility in West Terre Haute, Indiana.

“To produce anhydrous ammonia, specifically to target agricultural consumers.”  He says, “This region imports the majority of its nitrogen fertilizers, and it’s really a good opportunity to produce anhydrous ammonia in the region where it’s consumed.”

He tells Brownfield the plant is expected to produce 500,000 metric tons of anhydrous ammonia annually.

“This is going to be a big impact.”  He says, “The expectation is that the current higher-priced supply that currently comes in through imports through the Gulf Coast or trucked in from Canada, those are the volumes that we’re targeting to replace.”

Williams says the plant is expected to be online by the end of 2028 and use locally sourced coal to produce low-carbon ammonia.

“In our process, the CO2, which is a byproduct of the production, we’re actually going to capture, liquify, and sequester it underground to then produce what’s called a low carbon ammonia product.”  He says, “Typically in global manufacturing processes for ammonia, all those facilities have very high CO2 emission rates. This is a facility that will not have that CO2 emission.”

He says the project not only strengthens fertilizer supply chains but also boosts the regional economy.

“I grew up here in west central Indiana, and the majority of our company’s employees who have developed this project are either from here or have spent a significant amount of their adult life here.”  He says, “We’re pretty proud of a project that’s going to make a real meaningful impact in the region.”

AUDIO: Dan Williams – Wabash Valley Resources