Fantastic Fertiliser Facility

Fertiliser stinks. There’s no disputing that. Odour aside, fertiliser is a lynchpin of the agriculture industry. Made using natural gas as a feedstock, fertiliser feeds the world.

At present, Australia is heavily reliant on imports of foreign fertiliser to the tune of well over $1 billion a year.

Bringing that fertiliser in doesn’t just cost the agriculture sector more. It means our local farmers can’t be as carbon efficient or competitive. It also makes farmers vulnerable to global supply chains and markets.

Near Dongara, WA, ‘Project Haber’ completed the pre–End Engineering Design (FEED) and is preparing to enter the FEED phase. This is a big deal.

When operational, Project Haber could produce 1.4 million metric tonnes of urea fertiliser, every year. The locally produced, low carbon fertiliser has the potential to reduce the carbon intensity of Australian farming through replacing imported urea, while creating a more competitive agriculture industry.

The project aims to replace Australia’s reliance on foreign fertiliser, and the benefits at a local, regional, and national level are significant.

Project Haber is forecast to create 1,135 jobs during construction and support 283 jobs for a period of 30 years.

Over 15 years, it will contribute $8.4 billion to Australia’s GDP. It will also provide a 3.8% or $230 million boost to the local economy, yearly. It will deliver nearly $150M in tax revenue and cut Australia’s urea fertiliser CO2e footprint by up to 60%.

At the beginning of the project, Strike Energy will provide natural gas, a feedstock essential to the production of urea, from the close by South Erregulla gas discovery. However, the project includes the integration of an on-site 10 megawatt (MW) electrolyser with the capacity to produce around 1,825 tonnes per annum of renewables-based hydrogen, or around two per cent of the total hydrogen feedstock for the plant.

The green hydrogen production could replace natural gas entirely as fertiliser feedstock, and kickstart the green hydrogen industry in the Mid West WA Region.

Awarded Major Project Status by the Federal Government and Lead Agency Status by the WA Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation, the potential is massive.

Plenty about fertiliser stinks, but Project Haber is looking roses.

Learn more:

https://strikeenergy.com.au/project-haber/

https://research.csiro.au/hyresource/project-haber/