Fertilizer Industry News Roundup
Illinois-headquartered CF Industries has made a long-term commitment to low-carbon ammonia production and net-zero emissions.
Illinois-headquartered CF Industries has made a long-term commitment to low-carbon ammonia production and net-zero emissions.
Johnson Matthey and KBR have announced that they have signed a global strategic alliance agreement to license a new ammonia-methanol co-production process that combines the companies’ ammonia and methanol process technologies. The companies say that the co-production process makes the most of synergies between the two technologies, maximising savings while offering the highest levels of safety, flexibility and reliability.
Every five years since 1955, the Chinese government has prepared its ‘Five Year Plan’ for the country’s economy over the coming half decade. This year, the 14th Five Year Plan is being drafted, and given the influence of the Chinese economy over the global chemical sector, its conclusions will be eagerly awaited.
Falling costs for production of hydrogen by electrolysis are encouraging more serious consideration of using recovered carbon dioxide as a feedstock for chemicals and even fuels production.
Air Products and Haldor Topsoe have signed a global alliance agreement. Under the terms of the agreement the two companies will use their combined market network for developing potential projects and the combination of their expertise on large-scale ammonia, methanol and/or dimethyl ether (DME) plants to be developed and built globally. It gives Air Products access to Topsoe’s technology licenses and the supply of engineering design, equipment, high-performance catalysts and technical services for ammonia, methanol and DME plants that are built, owned and operated by Air Products. It also allows for the integration of Topsoe’s technology into many Air Products’ technologies including gasification of various feedstocks, and synthesis gas processes.
The UK’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has awarded £28 million ($36 million) of government funding to five demonstration projects for low carbon hydrogen production, as part of a larger stimulus package to cut industrial carbon emissions. The projects targeted for funding include:
‘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.
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.