Category: Sustainability/Environment

Paving the way for commercially attractive, sustainable, decarbonised fertilizer production, J. Dobrée of Stamicarbon BV discusses the latest developments for nitrate fertilizer production based on renewable feedstocks sourced from solar and wind energy. Stamicarbon has upgraded plant designs used in the past to create a new type of small-scale fertilizer plant capable of producing a product mix that can be adjusted to meet specific local requirements with maximised output value, thereby maintaining a competitive position towards imported products and large-scale producers.

The Global Gas Flaring Reduction Partnership (GGFR) is a World Bank sponsored programme to end wasteful and CO2 - intensive flaring of natural gas from oil production and stranded shale wells, and has been looking to small-scale methanol and GTL projects as a way of utilising this gas for productive ends.

Concerns are growing about the health impacts of the heavy metals present in phosphate-based fertilizers and their accumulation in soils. In response, regulators and international agencies are currently seeking to limit human exposure to these potentially harmful elements. Encouragingly, a number of sustainable options with minimal market impacts are available, as Mikhail Pleschev, Boris Levin and Juan von Gernet of PhosAgro explain.

M. van Son and S. Sreejit of Comprimo present a case study involving the design and potential integration of the sour water and acid gas treatment units for a renewable diesel facility with an existing refinery sulphur complex. The case study evaluates the potential for operating cost reduction by integrating an enrichment loop in the acid gas treatment plant as well as for using the existing infrastructure of the refinery to limit emissions.

‘Green’ methanol means many things to different people. It encompasses low carbon emissions methanol manufacture at scale, recovery of material through waste gasification and conversion to methanol and power to liquid (e-fuel) methanol via electrochemistry and sometimes a combination of all of the above. Each route has a place in reducing the overall carbon footprint of production and subsequent use of methanol, driven by both governmental incentives or societal demand. In this article Andrew Fenwick of Johnson Matthey reviews the various routes to manufacture.

thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions (tkIS) offers and builds Power-to-X plants and can provide all processes of the value chain, from water electrolysis and CO2 recovery to green ammonia, green methanol and green SNG. Renewable methanol production, which combines the application of carbon capture and utilisation with chemical energy storage, is a particularly promising sustainable solution.

BASF has filed a patent application for a greenhouse gas-free method for producing methanol. If successful on a large-scale, the process could eliminate carbon dioxide emissions throughout the entire production process from synthesis gas generation to pure methanol.

Leading nitrogen and phosphate producers, including ICL, OCP and Yara, have all launched major sustainable fertilizer production projects. The aim is to incorporate recovered nutrients or low-carbon feedstocks into their manufacturing processes.

Antonio Sancho , Incro’s managing director, gives a personal view on the circular economy and shares his experience of manufacturing high-quality liquid fertilizers from food industry wastewater.