
Fertilizer Industry News Roundup
In a major milestone, Yara International has officially opened its renewable hydrogen plant at Herøya Industrial Park, Porsgrunn, Norway.
In a major milestone, Yara International has officially opened its renewable hydrogen plant at Herøya Industrial Park, Porsgrunn, Norway.
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.
Sulphur is a necessary nutrient for strong and healthy plant-growth and disease resistance. Fertipaq manufactures the liquid suspension fertilizer S-600 using sulphur recovered wastewater and biogas streams. This organic product is an ideal nutrient source for crops with a high sulphur requirement.
OCP Group and Fortescue subsidiary Fortescue Energy have announced a 50:50 joint venture (JV) to supply green hydrogen, ammonia and fertilizers to Morocco, Europe and international markets.
While there has been a lot of talk about decarbonising ammonia and methanol production, for as long as blue and green production is more expensive than conventional production, uptake will be dependent upon markets which are prepared to pay a premium for such chemicals, perhaps because they have no other reasonable choice, given environmental mandates. One sector above all has dominated the prospects for medium term demand for low carbon ammonia and methanol alike, and that is shipping.
BASF, SABIC, and Linde have jointly inaugurated the world’s first demonstration plant for large-scale electrically heated steam cracking furnaces at BASF’s Verbund site in Ludwigshafen, following three years of development, engineering, and construction work. The three companies signed a joint agreement to develop and electrically heated steam cracking furnaces in March 2021.
Low emissions hydrogen is expected to play an increasing role in the syngasbased chemicals industry, but cost and technical challenges remain.
Paradeep Phosphates Limited (PPL) and Mangalore Chemicals & Fertilizers Limited (MCFL) have agreed to merge.
Indian fertilizer producers Mangalore Chemicals & Fertilizers (MCFL) and Paradeep Phosphates (PPL) have announced that the companies intend to merge, allowing them to consolidate their operations, according to a company statement. The new merged company, to be called PPL, will have a total production capacity of 3.6 million t/a of fertilizers.
NextChem Tech, has signed a contract with Paul Wurth SA, a subsidiary of SMS group, and Norsk e-Fuel AS for a licensing and engineering design package relating to its NX CPO (catalytic partial oxidation) technology, which will be used in an industrial scale plant producing sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) from green hydrogen and biogenic CO2 in Mosjøen, Norway. NextChem’s NX CPO technology produces synthesis gas via a very fast controlled partial oxidation reaction. When applied to synthetic fuel production, it can improve carbon efficiency recovery yield. The first plant developed by Norsk e-Fuel will have a production capacity of 40,000 t/a of green fuel and will enter operation after 2026. Based on the initial design, two additional facilities with a capacity of around 80 000 t/a each are planned to be built by 2030. The fuels will current aviation emissions.