N-fertilizer. Where does it come from?

PURE NUTRIENT FACTS #11
N-fertilizer
Where
does it
come from?
QUALITY, RELIABILITY, RESPONSIBILITY
Sufficient nutrient supply is vital for crop health and yield.
Mineral fertilizers play a central role to achieve the yield
and returns expected by farmers and required by a growing
world population. But where does mineral fertilizer actually come from? Under which conditions is it produced? Is
production sustainable? This Pure Nutrient fact provides
information on European fertilizer production and its impact
on environment, employment and many other aspects.
Fertilizer
production
PURE NUTRIENT FACTS
Producing pure nutrients
As the economic pressure on European farmers rises, improving returns becomes a vital necessity.
Optimizing farm inputs is a way to cut costs while controlling returns. One of the most important
farming inputs is mineral fertilizer. It originates from various sources throughout the world and can
be of variable quality.
Is European production different in terms of quality and environment?
GOOD FERTILIZER, GOOD CROP
RELIABLE SUPPLY
The mechanical quality of fertilizer is key for spreadability,
precise application, low environmental impact and high return on investment. In many cases, simply taking a handful of
fertilizer gives a first idea: dust and crushed granules indicate
low quality, while homogeneous size and smooth surface stand
for superior spreadability.
Mineral fertilizers also shall be pure nutrients, free of additives
and pollution. And their environmental footprint, both at production and application shall be as low as possible.
Ensuring high quality goes along with continuous investments
in people, technology and organization. Europe has the highest
production standards all over the world, meeting the social,
environmental and health requirements of our society - today
as well as tomorrow.
Yara fertilizer plants are located all over Europe, in close vicinity to seaports and rivers to enable efficient transportation:
Montoir, Ambès and Le Havre in France, Brunsbüttel and Rostock in Germany, Tertre in Belgium, Sluiskil in the Netherlands,
Ravenna in Italy, Porsgrunn and Glomfjord in Norway to name
only a few.
Yara’s fertilizer factories run 24 hours 7 days a week. They only
stop once in a while for maintenance work and installation
upgrades. Huge storage areas hold sufficient stock to ensure
continuous deliveries and compensate for demand variations.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
In a modern plant, nitrogen fertilizer is produced from natural gas. In several transformation steps, natural gas, essentially
methane, is upgraded by combination with nitrogen from the
air to form nitrogen fertilizer. 80% of the gas is used as feedstock for fertilizer while 20% is used for heating the process and
producing electricity. A typical fertilizer production process
is laid out in figure 1, but not all plants perform all transformation steps.
Based on the two main end products, ammonium nitrate and
urea, different fertilizer types are manufactured by mixing with
ingredients such as phosphorus and potassium to form NPKs,
dolomite to form CAN or by mixing urea and ammonium
nitrate solution to make UAN.
SAFETY, QUALITY, SUSTAINABILITY
All Yara production plants work according to best available
techniques and are certified according to latest international
standards:
••ISO 9001 (Quality)
••ISO 14001 (Environment)
••OHSAS 18001 (Health and Safety)
Daily controls ensure constant mechanical and chemical quality. Complete traceability of each individual batch is ensured
at all time.
Yara Plants in Europe
Yara Plant in Sluiskil
Figure 1: Production scheme of a typical Fertilizer plant.
N2
H2O
CO2
Catalyst
(see section “Reducing GHG emissions”
on following page for further information)
Air
N2O
CO2
CO2
Air
O2, N2
Ammonia
NH3
Vessels
Pipeline
Natural gas
CH4
Ammonia
production
Potassium, Phosphorus, Dolomite
Urea
production
Nitric
produ
c acid
uction
Yara Plant in Sluiskil
EUROPEAN FERTILIZER PRODUCTION
AT A GLANCE
YARA IN EUROPE
AT A GLANCE
••Direct employees: 16.500
••Total employment effect including indirect employment: 50.000
••Investments: 633 Million € annually
••Production locations: 22
••Fertilizer sales: 10,2 Mt
••Direct employees: 7.000
Urea
CH4 N2O
Urea
UAN
Ammonium
nitrate
NH4 NO3
Nitric acid
NHO3
Cooperative
Distributor
AN
CAN
Farmer
NPK
Ammonium
nitrate
production
PURE NUTRIENT FACTS
Preserving the environment
Reducing energy consumption, mitigating air pollution and improving water management are very
important aspects of fertilizer production. In terms of environmental protection, Yara’s factory in
Sluiskil, Netherlands, is representative for other similar production plants across Europe.
What has been really achieved in recent years?
REDUCING ENERGY CONSUMPTION
Production of fertilizer requires energy. It is provided by the
natural gas used as raw material for fertilizer production. Energy consumption of fertilizer production has been reduced
exponentially and Yara’s factories are today operating close to
the theoretical minimum.
As a side effect to fertilizer production, Yara factories produce
electrical energy which is used inhouse or fed to the public grid.
mitigates 90 % of N2O emissions and thus significantly reduces the carbon footprint of fertilizer production. Yara catalyst technology was first applied in Yara’s Montoir factory in
France and is now used in all European factories.
Mt eq. CO2
6
Abatement of N2O emissions
Catalyst
5
GJ / t ammonia
400
Energy consumption of fertilizer production
4
Birkeland-Eyde
3
300
2
Cyanamid process
200
0
1
Haber-Bosch
100
1910
1915
1930
1950
Energy use
of ammonia plants
Steam reforming
natural gas
1960
1975
2000
Theoretical
technological limit
Figure 2: Energy consumption of fertilizer production has decreased exponentially. For a modern plant using natural gas, it is
close to the theoretical minimum [1].
REDUCING AIR POLLUTION
Air pollution can be gaseous (mainly ammonia and NOx) or
dusty (nitrate or urea dust). All emissions need to be monitored
and minimized. Over the last three decades, emissions from
Yara’s factories in Sluiskil have been divided by three.
tN
3500
Cumulative nitrogen gas and dust emissions
from the Sluiskil plant
Urea emissions
3000
Nitrate emission
2500
NOx emissions
2000
0
1995
2000
CO2 t
2005
2010
2013
N2O (eq. CO2) t
Figure 4: Abatement of N2O emissions through catalyst has reduced GHG emissions from the Yara Sluiskil plant significantly [3].
RECYCLING HEAT AND CO2
Fertilizer production creates heat. This heat is either
lost or reused. Since 2009, a
pilot project in Yara’s Sluiskil plant provides heat to
neighboring greenhouses.
In 2017, 148 ha of greenhouses will benefit from
this cooperation. 1700 TJ/y
of energy is thus saved, corresponding to 34.000 average Dutch households. In
addition, 60.000 t of CO 2
are delivered to stimulate
crop growth.
Figure 5: Heat and CO2 is fed to
greenhouses close to Sluiskil.
NH3 emissions
1500
BIOLOGICAL CLEANSING OF WATER
1000
500
0
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
2005
2010
Figure 3: Cumulative gas and dust emissions from the Sluiskil
plant have been divided by 3 over the last three decades [2].
Very clean water is needed at various steps of the production
process. In a semi-industrial test scheme in Yara’s Sluiskil
plant, algae are used to remove unwanted nutrients from the
incoming and outgoing water. Various industries use biomass
produced by algae.
REDUCING GHG EMISSIONS
Fertilizer production is energy intensive and therefore produces greenhouse gases. These are mainly CO2 and N2O.
••Reusing part of the CO2 within the production cycle can reduce CO2 emissions. Yara plants provide CO2 to horticulture,
to the food & beverage industry, as dry ice for cooling and
for other industrial applications. CO2 from the ammonia
production is also used for urea production. These CO2 uses
cannot eliminate CO2 but represent transient storage.
••N2O is a very powerful greenhouse gas, with a climate impact
296 times stronger than CO2. Eliminating N2O therefore is
a priority. Yara has developed a catalyst technology, which
Figure 6: Biological cleansing of process water through algae.
Supplying local needs
The European fertilizer industry counts many independent producers, Yara being one of them. Despite international price pressure and severe European regulation, European fertilizer manufacturers
continue to produce high quality fertilizers for European farmers.
What are the specificities of European fertilizer production?
UREA OR AMMONIUM NITRATE?
INVESTING INTO THE FUTURE
In Europe, ammonium nitrate is the gold standard for nitrogen
fertilization and widely used. Accordingly, most of the ammonium nitrate used in Europe comes from local production. Part
of the ammonium nitrate production is also exported. Urea is
mainly imported from other regions of the world.
The European fertilizer industry offers roughly 50.000 direct
and indirect employments. Investments in new equipments
and factory upgrades represent more than 600 million € annually. Considerable efforts have been made in recent years to
make fertilizer production as clean as possible. Today, European standards are considered best practice and no other region
in the world produces fertilizer with better environmental
compatibility than Europe!
Use of fertilizer N-forms in Europe (28)
GHG emissions by region
1286
2325
Ammonium nitrate
1400
Urea
UAN
6063
Other
t eq. CO2 /t product
3,5
CO2 from production
3
CO2 from transportation
2,5
2
1,5
1
0,5
0
EU-average Egypt
2010/11
Design: bb&b – Photos: Yara / Ole Walter Jacobsen 02/2015
Figure 7: Most of the fertilizer used in the European Community
is locally produced ammonium nitrate [4].
For further information about nitrate
fertilizers and farming, visit Yara
website www.yara.com or our
YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/
yarainternationalasa
You can also download the
Pure Nutrient app (available for iOS
and Android devices).
Saudi A N.Africa Ukraine
Russia
China
(coal)
Figure 8: GHG emissions from ammonium nitrate production per
ton of product are lowest in Europe [5].
LITERATURE
Nitrate fertilize
r
Optimizing yield
,
preserving the
environment.
ABOUT YARA
Yara International ASA is an international company
headquartered in Oslo, Norway. As the world’s largest supplier of mineral fertilizers for more than a century, we help to provide food and renewable energy
for a growing world population.
Yara provides quality products, knowledge and advice to farmers. Please do not hesitate to contact
one of our local agronomists for further information.
Yara International ASA
Drammensveien 131
N-0277 Oslo, Norway
USA
Tél : + 47 24 15 70 00
Fax : + 47 24 15 70 01
www.yara.com
[1] Adapted from Anundskas, A. (2000): Technical improvements in mineral
nitrogen fertilizer production. In: Harvesting energy with fertilizers.
European Fertilizer Manufacturers Association.
[2] Yara, internal communication (2013).
[3] Yara, internal communication (2014).
[4] Fertilizers Europe, consumption report, estimation 2013/2014 (2014).
[5] Fertilizers Europe (2011).