Australian carbon capture and utilisation company Airbridge has secured the maximum AU$1.5 million grant to scale its pilot project to capture carbon dioxide from an ammonia manufacturing plant.
The funding from Western Australia’s Carbon Innovation Grants Program will support a pilot project at Yara Pilbara Fertilisers’ ammonia and ammonium nitrate facility on the Burrup Peninsula.
The facility is one of the world’s largest ammonia production sites, and the project will see Airbridge apply its technology from an operational pilot in Perth into heavy industry in the Pilbara.
The Airbridge-Yara Commercialisation project will involve the design, construction and operation of a pilot plant capable of capturing 2,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the ammonia production facility.
The captured CO₂ will be mineralised and converted into commercially valuable products commonly used in already established markets.
Airbridge CEO Nick Lockwood said the transition from pilot operation to industrial deployment is the next step in commercialisation.
“This project is about taking a technology that already works and integrating it into a live industrial process, where reliability, uptime and economics matter just as much as capture performance.”
Yara Pilbara’s facility produces approximately 840,000 tonnes of ammonia per year.
The pilot project is a potential pathway to reduce emissions in a sector that is regarded as among the most difficult to decarbonise.
Yara Pilbara COO Lauren Trost said the project aligned with the company’s broader decarbonisation strategy.
“Ammonia production is critically important but inherently emissions-intensive, and there are limited options available today that can be integrated into existing plants,” Trost said.
“This pilot allows us to test a decarbonisation solution that fits our current operations and converts emissions into value-added products we already manufacture and use.”
Construction and commissioning of the project are expected to commence in 2027.
