Fulcrum BioEnergy says that it has successfully produced low-carbon synthetic crude oil using landfill waste as a feedstock at its Sierra BioFuels Plant, the world’s first commercial-scale landfill waste-to-fuels plant. Located outside of Reno, Nevada, Sierra will produce approximately 11 million gallons of renewable, low-carbon transportation fuels each year from approximately 175,000 t/a of landfill waste.
Topsoe has agreed to supply an initial 500 MW of industrial-scale, solid oxide electrolyser cells (SOEC) to First Ammonia, a US company aiming to produce green ammonia for transportation fuel, power storage and generation, as well as fertilizer, at sites in northern Germany and the southwestern United States. The companies envisage that over the lifetime of the agreement some 5 GW of SOEC electrolysers will be supplied, potentially replacing almost 5 bcm of natural gas and eliminating the emission of 13 million t/a of CO 2 emissions. The facility to manufacture the electrolyser cells will be built in Herning, Denmark, and has recently received a final investment decisions from Topsoe’s board.
Yara International has approved a project to partly convert its Pilbara plant near Karratha in Western Australia to green ammonia production.
A record rise in gas prices at the end of August triggered a spate of ammonia production curtailments across Europe. These included major shutdown announcements from CF Fertilisers UK, Grupa Azoty, Yara International and others.
Maire Tecnimont’s innovation and licensing company Stamicarbon has been selected as the licensor for a urea project in sub-Saharan Africa, its first license in the region. Stamicarbon will deliver the process design package for the front-end engineering and design for a 4,000 t/d urea melt and granulation plant. The urea melt plant with a pool reactor will use Stamicarbon’s MP Flash design, a melt concept with improved energy efficiency, entailing a significant reduction of steam consumption. The minimal equipment items result in a significant reduction of the footprint and the overall capital cost of the plant. Less equipment also allows for a reduction in maintenance costs and OPEX savings.
At the end of June a three day strike among workers at Chilean state mining company Codelco paralysed copper output at the world’s largest copper producer. The strike was in protest at the threatened closure of the Ventanas smelter, which was the site of an alleged leak of sulphur dioxide on June 6th. Chile’s environmental regulator subsequently provisional measures for both Codelco and power company AES Chile after numerous people in the nearby towns of Quintero and Puchuncavi in central Chile, including hundreds of high school students and staff, showed signs of sulphur dioxide poisoning. The measures include the installation of a new temperature sensor to measure potential thermal inversions. Both companies have denied responsibility for the leak; Codelco says that its air quality stations recorded normal levels of SO2 during the time of the incident.
Researchers from Australia’s Monash University say that they have created a new generation of lithium-sulphur batteries which could provide a cheaper, cleaner and faster-charging energy storage solution that outlasts lithium-ion alternatives and is rechargeable hundreds of times without failing. The team has creating a new interlayer which allows for exceptionally fast lithium transfer, as well as an improvement in the performance and lifetime of the batteries.
The Jordan Phosphate Mines Company (JPMC) has signed a supply agreement with Germany’s LUMA-International Company.Under the terms of the agreement, JPMC will sell 850,000 t/a of phosphate rock to the German company at international market rates. The agreement was signed by JPMC CEO Abdulwahab Rawad and managing director of LUMA-International Ralf Keller, in the presence of JPMC Chairman Muhammad Thneibat. Thneibat expressed hope that the deal would open wider scopes of cooperation between the JPMC and German companies in the field of phosphate fertilizers, and Keller likewise said that his company was looking forward to more cooperation with the JPMC and new partnerships to produce phosphoric acid and phosphate fertilizers.
Casale has acquired Hong Kong-based Green Granulation Ltd (GGL), and its proprietary technologies for the design and construction of urea and calcium ammonium nitrate (CAN) granulation systems. Casale says that the takeover is part of a broader strategy aimed at strengthening its leading position in the nitrogen market by leveraging the widest integrated portfolio of efficient technologies, enabling the company to offer a ‘one stop shop’ for the entire production cycle of nitrogen-based fertilizers, from raw materials to final products. GGL’s addition to the Casale group includes the Cold Recycle Granulation process, an advanced fluidised bed technology designed to accept a lower concentration of urea feed melt (ca 96% urea and biuret), as well as a proprietary design for both granulator and scrubber, a team of experts and qualified technicians, and considerable experience in several industrial references. The CRG design has a horizontal layout, leading to lower structural costs and higher efficiency, as well as lower total investment costs and power consumption, lower power consumption and simplified operation, and higher operational flexibility in urea and CAN granulation.
Certain fertilizer prices are likely to remain above $1,000/t well into 2023, according to Moody’s.