Atome Villeta Green Fertilizer

pending

The proposed IFC investment is an up to US$130 million financing including: (i) an IFC A Loan of up to US$[30]mn, and (ii) a subordinated loan of up to US$[75-105]mn to ATOME Paraguay SAE (the “Company” or the “Borrower”), a wholly owned subsidiary of ATOME Energy PLC (“ATOME” or the “Sponsor”)- (https://www.atomeplc.com/), a UK-listed company focused on the development of greenfield green hydrogen projects for the purpose of producing, marketing and distributing green fertilizers. The proposed project entails the financing of Paraguay’s first green hydrogen fertilizer project, the Villeta 145MW production facility, designed to produce up to 260,000 tons per annum (tpa) of green calcium ammonium nitrate (“CAN”), a low-carbon fertilizer (“the Project”).  The Project is located 30km to the south of Villeta municipality, within an industrial area in development, near the eastern bank of the Paraguay River and approximately 3km east of the border with Argentina. The Project encompasses construction and operation of a green hydrogen fertilizer plant that will include the following: (i) an electrolysis plant with an installed capacity of 110MW and a pressurized alkaline water electrolysis system with a nominal capacity of 1,978kg/h, and onsite storage capacity of 10 m3 at 15 bar of operational pressure ; (ii) an air separation unit with a cryogenic distillation unit; (iii) an ammonia synthesis plant with a Haber-Bosch fixation process with  a double metallic wall storage tank  with a 1432,4 m3 of volume at refrigerated liquid-phase storage under normal pressure; (iv) a Nitric Acid plant designed per EU BAT; (v) an Ammonium Nitrate Solution plant; and (vi) a Granulation Plant. The Project will also require ancillary infrastructure including a 0.5km-long 220kV interconnection line (IL) and a 2.5km-long water line with associated water intake structure and wastewater discharge system. The project is currently in the planning phase and is expected to have a construction schedule of 38 months.