Avina Clean Hydrogen (Avina), a leading clean fuel solutions provider, announced the successful completion of front-end engineering design (FEED) and front-end-loading (FEL-3) for its 2,200 metric tpd clean ammonia facility located in Texas Gulf Coast. With a final investment decision (FID) targeted in 2025, this is a major milestone for the industry as it represents the first announced completion of FEED for a large-scale clean ammonia facility in the U.S.

KBR, a global leader in ammonia technology with decades of experience designing and executing large-scale ammonia plants worldwide, had previously provided the basic engineering design (BED) package for the plant. KBR continued to support design activities, ensuring an advanced and efficient design tailored to meet stringent environmental and operational standards.

Larsen & Toubro (L&T) led the overall FEED effort, bringing its engineering, procurement and modularization capabilities to support the project’s design and estimation. EXCEL, a leading construction contractor in the ammonia sector, led the constructability effort in FEED, leveraging their recent experience in executing similar world- class ammonia plants in the Texas Gulf Coast region. The FEED scope included engineering design of ammonia synthesis loop, H₂ and ammonia storage, electrolytic H₂ production, renewable power integration and engineering design of OSBL facilities.

The Gulf Coast Clean Ammonia facility is designed to meet the surging global demand for clean fuels. Scheduled to commence operations in 2028, it will produce up to 800,000 metric tpy of clean ammonia by utilizing a blend of blue and electrolytic H₂. The facility will comply with renewable fuels of non-biological origin (RFNBO) standards, aligning with European Union guidelines. Additionally, facility will benefit from existing natural gas and carbon sequestration infrastructure in the Texas Gulf Coast.

Project highlights:

• Flexible H₂ sources: The facility is designed to integrate up to 280 MMtpd of blue H₂, enabling the production of up to 600,000 MMtpy of blue ammonia. In addition, the FEED process included close collaboration with leading electrolyzer manufacturers and renewable energy suppliers to optimize the plant design.
• Secured water supply and interconnection studies: Avina has signed a long-term water supply agreement with the local water district, ensuring sufficient water access to produce 800,000 MMtpy of clean ammonia. Interconnection studies have been completed to ensure sufficient access to 1 GW of transmission capacity.
• Low CI pre-certification: The overall facility is also well positioned to deliver low CI ammonia to the European RFNBO compliance markets at a highly competitive rate. Moreover, the green process has achieved Tier 1 Clean H₂ pre-certification from the Korean Energy Economics Institute (KEEI) with an outstanding Well-to-Gate carbon intensity (CI) score of 0.04 kgCO₂e/kgH₂.
• Oil and gas sector partnerships: The facility will take advantage of the vast network of pipelines, storage and terminal facilities operated by leading players in the Oil & Gas sector in the Texas Gulf Coast region.

“Our Texas Gulf Coast clean ammonia facility will leverage existing energy infrastructure, create several hundred high paying jobs and make U.S. a dominant producer of next generation fuels. We are incredibly grateful to industry leading players such as KBR, L&T and EXCEL that have each brought their highly valuable expertise to this groundbreaking project,” said Vishal Shah, Founder & CEO of Avina Clean Hydrogen Inc.

“KBR is pleased to witness Avina’s progress in its clean ammonia project and we are proud to support them with our leading ammonia technology offering for this world scale facility in Texas,” said Jay Ibrahim, KBR President, Sustainable Technology Solutions.

Derek M Shah, Senior Vice President & Head, L&T Energy Green Mfg. & Development, said, “We are glad to have contributed to this groundbreaking initiative in large-scale clean ammonia production, which aligns with our commitment to advancing sustainable energy solutions. Our integrated capabilities and proven track record in top-tier project management, advanced design & engineering along with world-class modular fabrication expertise will ensure the highest standards of execution for this landmark project.”

“EXCEL is excited to have contributed to the successful completion of the FEED phase for the Avina Clean Hydrogen project. Our EPC front-end services division leveraged decades of expertise, while working with the project partners, to deliver actionable and reliable information for enhancing project certainty with our client. This milestone, and technology, marks another “first” in the EXCEL portfolio of Clean Ammonia Projects. EXCEL is eager to continue our collaboration throughout the entire project lifecycle, as well as further contributions to Avina’s future endeavors,” said Matthew Shoriak, Executive Vice President of EXCEL Group.