CSBP general manager ammonia/ammonium nitrate Leigh Meyers, WesCEF general manager climate opportunities Mussaret Nagree, Federal Minister for Resources Madeleine King and WesCEF managing director Ian Hansen on site at CSBP Kwinana. Photo: CSBP

THE Federal Government has awarded $32.9 million to Wesfarmers Chemicals, Energy and Fertilisers’ CSBP, a major fertiliser producer in Western Australia, to accelerate its decarbonisation program.

Received through the Powering the Regions Fund, the money will be used to install tertiary abatement catalysts in two of CSBP’s older nitric acid ammonium nitrate (NAAN) plants at its Kwinana facility.

This will reduce the plants’ greenhouse gas emissions by 64,000 tonnes of carbon-dioxide equivalent per year.

Federal funding is in addition to $500,000 awarded to CSBP late last year via the WA Government’s Carbon Innovation Grants program to pilot this latest form of catalyst technology in WesCEF’s third NAAN plant.

WesCEF managing director Ian Hansen said the announcement was a great example of industry working with state and federal governments, to deliver the common objective of net-zero emissions.

“The first phase of our abatement journey began in 2012 and we have achieved some considerable results with over 8.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide-equivalent greenhouse-gas emissions abated from the older, secondary catalyst technology installed on all three of our NAAN plants,” Mr Hansen said.

The funding will help the business accelerate phase two of its Net Zero Roadmap by applying the latest technology to its two remaining plants.

“This grant will help us accelerate toward our goal of reducing nitrous oxide emissions from our NAAN plants by 98 percent before 2028, which in turn supports our target of 30pc reduction in emissions by 2030 relative to our 2020 baseline.”

The funding also enables the decarbonisation of the critical value chains in which WesCEF operates.

“By installing this technology, we do our part to decarbonise our own operations while helping our customers in the mining and agricultural sectors decarbonise their businesses by providing them with low-emissions products,” WesCEF’s general manager climate opportunities Mussaret Nagree said.

Source: CSBP