The Villeta project of the British company Atome Plc aims to completely free itself from fossil fuels for the production of agricultural nutrients. There is no doubt that this is a real breakthrough project at a time when the Hormuz crisis is disrupting the fertilizer market.
Traditionally, nitrogen fertilisers have been made by reforming natural gas – or Steam Methane Reforming – to obtain hydrogen, a process that emits a lot of CO2. Most nitrogen fertilizers are produced by combining hydrogen, derived from natural gas, with nitrogen in the air to make ammonia. The new green fertiliser will use hydrogen extracted from water using green electricity.
The ATOME project is switching to a 100% green model:
- Electrolysis of water to obtain green hydrogen, using electricity from the Paranà River
- Cryogenic separation of air to capture atmospheric nitrogen.
- Synthesis of green ammonia and final transformation into a solution of calcareous ammonium nitrate (CAN 27), a very stable granular fertilizer popular with farmers.
A strategic geographical location
The industrial site is located in Villeta, Paraguay. This choice owes nothing to chance and responds to a very fine cost arbitrage logic:
- Access to baseload: The plant is directly supplied by the Itaipu dam. Having continuous, stable hydroelectric electricity that is among the cheapest in the world allows electrolysers to run continuously (unlike solar or intermittent wind), eliminating the need for state subsidies to be profitable.
- Proximity to the target market: Paraguay is at the heart of Mercosur (close to the agricultural giants Brazil and Argentina), a region that currently imports more than 90% of its nitrogen fertilizers.
A question of the environment and food safety
Natural gas accounts for the largest part of the cost of producing ammonia, causing a considerable increase in agricultural prices. Deprived of a quarter to a third of the nitrogen production transiting through the Strait of Hormuz, the nitrogen fertilizer market is suffering from a price spike that risks turning into a global food shock.
Atome’s green manure is not only a remedy for an environmental crisis, it is also a response to a potential global food security crisis. Indeed, Latin America, one of the world’s main breadbaskets, imports half of its nitrogen fertilizers from the Gulf countries. We understand the strategic importance of the establishment of the Atome plant in Paraguay in the middle of Mercosur. It should eventually free Latin America from the fragility of the two main nitrogen-producing regions: Russia and the Gulf countries.
The latest financial developments (Spring 2026)
The project has just moved from the status of a concept to that of an industrial reality. A leading international financial consortium has just completed the round of financing:
- Final Investment Decision (FID): Formally approved for a total amount of $665 million.
- Debt financing ($420 million): Supported by major development institutions such as the International Finance Corporation (IFC – World Bank Group), the European Investment Bank (EIB via EIB Global), the Dutch FMO and the Green Climate Fund.
- Equity financing ($245 million): Led by Hy24, the world’s largest manager of infrastructure funds dedicated to clean hydrogen.
- Construction and Marketing: The $465 million turnkey construction (EPC) contract has been awarded to the Swiss Casale Group. In terms of outlets, a 10-year offtake agreement has already been signed with the Norwegian giant Yara International.
The plant is expected to enter commercial operation by 2029, with a target production of 260,000 tonnes of low-carbon fertilisers per year, avoiding the emission of 500,000 tonnes of CO2 per year. This is a real textbook case of what biotechnology and modern engineering can bring to food sovereignty and the climate transition.
