Category: Europe

An explosion at the FrieslandCampina site in Borculo in July 2025 this year was reportedly caused by an error in the discharge of hydrochloric acid. The explosion released a mix of chlorine gas and nitrogen oxides. A truck driver reported to the wrong unloading point at the dairy company in Gelderland on 4th. Both the driver and a factory employee failed to properly check the cargo’s paperwork, resulting in the hydrochloric acid being unloaded into a nitric acid tank. Furthermore, an incorrect coupling was used during the unloading process, the company reported after its own investigation. An orange cloud containing chlorine gas and nitrogen dioxide was released and spread throughout the surrounding area. Around 21:00, the site was evacuated and the fire department was alerted. At 22:13, the tank exploded. The tank lid was later found in a meadow near the factory.

Linde has received a e4.3 million ($4.7 million) funding commitment to build a new 5MW alkaline electrolysis plant in Leuna, Saxony-Anhalt, adding to the region’s growing hydrogen infrastructure. The project, which complements Linde’s existing 24 MW facility, is scheduled for commissioning by the end of 2026 and is expected to produce 450 t/a of green hydrogen for local industrial customers via pipeline distribution. The funding was formally awarded on August 13 by Saxony-Anhalt’s Economics Minister Prof. Dr. Armin Willingmann, backed by the state’s “Future Energy” programme and the EU’s European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

Yara has applied for a new environmental permit in order to be able to import 275,000 t/a of ammonia by rail to its site at Tertre in the Saint-Ghislain municipality. The permit will cover ammonia to continue to operate downstream nitric acid and ammonium nitrate production at Tertre following the closure of the site’s 400,000 t/a ammonia plant. A public inquiry into the permit is expected to be completed in early September 2025. Yara says that train traffic to the site will increase to around 5 trains per week if the permit is granted.

Lummus Technology says that its Novolen® polypropylene technology has been selected for a new grassroots plant in Antwerp. The plant will be part of a complex owned by Vioneo which will be the world’s first industrial scale fossil-free plastics production complex. The complex, based on green methanol as feedstock, will also be highly electrified using renewable electricity and use renewable hydrogen as key components to its operations.

A new fertilizer blending plant will provide farmers in northern Germany with better access to high-quality controlled-release fertilizers (CRFs).

Russia’s Ammoni JSC has received funding approval for the Ammonia-2 plant at its Mendeleevsk complex in Tatarstan.

Anglo American has set out three pre-conditions for a final investment decision (FID) on its Woodsmith polyhalite project.

Norwegian state-owned power group Statkraft says that it is moving ahead with plans for a 400 MW green hydrogen and ammonia production facility in the Shetland Islands, after securing a land lease near the disused Scatsta Airport. Known as the Shetland Hydrogen Project 2, the facility will use electrolytic hydrogen to produce green ammonia for a range of industrial applications, including use as a sustainable marine fuel and to help decarbonise fertiliser production.

Pawel Kisielewski, CCm's CEO, talks to Fertilizer International about its innovative fertilizer technology, achievements to date and UK production scale-up.

A model developed by ERCOSPLAN can help select the most efficient mining method for potash ore deposits.