Nitrogen+Syngas 390 Jul-Aug 2024
31 July 2024
A round-up of current and proposed projects involving non-nitrogen synthesis gas derivatives, including methanol, synthetic/substitute natural gas (SNG) and gas- and coal to liquids (GTL/CTL) plants.
South America has become the largest importing region for nitrogen fertilizers, with Brazil overtaking India as the world’s largest urea importer. While there have been attempts to use local gas to develop a domestic nitrogen industry, these have faced challenges on a number of fronts.
The past few years have seen a rapid increase in attempts to generate ammonia from streams of nitrate polluted wastewater, but how practical are these methods?
At the end of this year, the European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) will move from its transitional phase into its ‘definitive’ phase, whereby the carbon costs of goods entering the EU will need to be priced in. CBAM requires suppliers to calculate the carbon emissions of their fertilizer (and other, e.g. steel) products, including indirect emissions, for example from electricity consumed in the process, and emissions of precursor or raw materials. They will then need to purchase CBAM certificates to cover embedded emissions above the established free allowance benchmark rates determined by the European Commission: 1.57 tonnes CO2e/tonne ammonia and 0.23 tCO2e/t nitric acid.
• Ammonia prices look well insulated against any declines over the immediate term, though the upside may be more limited in some regions than others.
Ammonia prices in both hemispheres had levelled out by the end of August, with the exception of a few marginal upticks in some regions on the basis of the latest supply-demand dynamics. All eyes are now on September’s Tampa settlement, which should spell out the extent of the upside pressure set to emerge over the coming weeks.