Dyno Nobel, a Incitec Pivot subsidiary, has opened a $20 million nitrous oxide abatement project at its Moranbah plant in Queensland.
The project is expected to have a lifespan of 20 years and will abate approximately 200,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions per annum.
According to Dyno Nobel, this is comparable to taking almost 50,000 cars off the road or planting more than three million trees a year.
The project will work by converting nitrous oxide emissions from manufacturing nitric acid to naturally occurring nitrogen and oxygen, removing more than 95 per cent of nitrous oxide emissions from the process of making explosives products for the mining industry.
The project is also expected to reduce Scope-3 greenhouse gas by more than 0.5 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per tonne of ammonium nitrate used.
The opening of the new nitrous oxide (N2O) abatement project took place on April 8 and was attended by Incitec Pivot (IPL) managing director and chief executive officer Mauro Neves.
“We are proud to officially open this innovative project and celebrate today at Moranbah with the skilled and dedicated team behind its successful installation and operation,” Neves said.
“The project is already working to reduce Dyno Nobel’s and IPL’s GHG emissions and, in turn, those of our valued mining customers who rely on our explosive products to extract vital minerals and resources for Australians and export markets.
“Our $20 million investment in this project is part of our commitment to the region, to our customers and our decarbonisation efforts. Dyno Nobel has been part of the Moranbah community for more than 15 years, supporting regional jobs and ongoing production in the nationally important Bowen Basin metallurgical coal industry.”
Dyno Nobel Asia Pacific president Greg Hayne also attended the official opening.
“This project is a significant investment in our strategically located Moranbah plant,” Hayne said.
“We’re proud it was safely installed utilising the expertise of our own highly experienced people onsite, as well as IPL’s global health safety and environment centre of excellence, regional expertise and world leaders in N2O abatement.”
Dyno Nobel anticipates for the project’s first full of benefits to be realised in the 2024–25 financial year and will equate to a reduction of up to 12 per cent in the company’s global operational GHG emissions against its 2020 baseline.