Category: Sustainability/Environment

Casale, Saipem, Stamicarbon & Toyo Engineering Corporation showcase a selection of innovative technologies that have recently been brought to the market.

A review of the current slate of plans for green and blue ammonia production.

The production and use of nitrogen fertilizers are responsible for around five percent of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The fertilizer industry will need to drastically cut these emissions by 2050 as part of its contribution to the 1.5 °C global warming target. Yet around 48 percent of the global population rely on crops grown with nitrogen fertilizers. Guaranteeing food security, by continuing to supply affordable crop nutrients at scale, while transitioning to a low-carbon future, is therefore the collective challenge for the global fertilizer industry and world agriculture.

The need for immediate climate action and cuts in carbon emissions has never been more urgent, especially in a world where ecosystems are increasingly under threat. The production of green fertilizers offers a clear route to achieving these goals by decreasing the chemical industry’s reliance on fossil fuels. Stamicarbon’s Carmen Perez, Rolf Postma and Nikolay Ketov outline the company’s innovative and integrated approach to green fertilizer technology.

RNZ Group is positioning itself as the most innovative and sustainable fertilizer producer in the UAE. In partnership with Shell, the company has been manufacturing sulphur-enhanced fertilizers using Thiogro technology since the end of 2022. Raza Soomar , RNZ’s managing director, provides an overview of the company and highlights recent business successes.

Fertilizers will always be fundamental to food production, but they will also have to be low emissions, environmentally friendly and support healthy soils. In this article, Dr Alexander Schmitt, Chief Marketing Officer, Anglo American Crop Nutrients, explains how polyhalite meets all three of these criteria – while also helping to increase the quantity and quality of food a farmer can produce.

Ammonia has been recognised as an advantageous hydrogen and energy carrier. This article focuses on the use of ammonia as fuel in steam reformers and ammonia crackers in order to reduce or completely eliminate direct CO2 emissions. Ammonia combustion knowledge is especially important for ammonia crackers with respect to the recycling of unconverted ammonia. Air Liquide is constructing an industrial scale pilot plant in Antwerp, planned to be operational in 2024, that will be used to demonstrate ammonia cracking and combustion in a process furnace with a multiple burner configuration.

The phosphate industry, the dominant consumer of sulphuric acid worldwide, has grown to its present size on the back of fertilizer consumption. And while this has seen considerable growth over the past decades, especially in countries like China, India and Brazil, it has generally been fairly steady and – subject to the annual vagaries of weather and the commodity cycle – relatively predictable. However, the world economy is now in the throes of a major transformation towards less carbon intensive generation and use of energy, and that is disrupting many markets, including that for phosphates.

Sasol and Topsoe have appointed Jan Toschka as CEO of the joint venture established by the two companies to develop, build, own and operate sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) ventures and to market the products. Previously Toschka was president of Global Aviation for Shell, responsible for Shell’s global network of operations, joint ventures and sales of fuels, lubricants and sustainable solutions to the aviation industry. During his tenure at Shell, he has led teams across sales, mergers and acquisitions, trading, and retail businesses globally, spanning various industries including Marine and Retail. Toschka will assume his new role as CEO on 1 March 2024 and the joint venture will be launched during the same month. The new company will be headquartered in The Netherlands.

Fertilizer International spoke to Matt O’Leary , the MD of Aquifert, about the state of the water-soluble fertilizer (WSF) market at the 2024 Fertilizer Latino Americano Conference in Miami in February.