As more focus extends to a circular economy, there are industry wide discussions on whether future global sulphur demand will be challenged by the energy transition and decarbonisation. Hannes Storch, Collin Bartlett and Marcus Runkel of Metso discuss how the recycling of pyrite tailings could address some of these issues.
One of the biggest areas for new sulphuric acid demand in the past few years has been in nickel processing plants, particularly in Indonesia. A decade ago, incoming president Joko Widodo took a strategic decision that the country needed to try and capture more of the value chain from its mining and mineral industry, which was focused at the time on exports of aluminium, copper and nickel ores and concentrates, mainly to China. Over the past 10 years, the export of raw ores has been progressively restricted and companies instead compelled to build downstream processing plants for the metals. With China the main recipient of Indonesian ores, much of the investment in metals processing in Indonesia has been via Chinese companies.
China’s acid production continues to grow as new smelters come on-stream. But high domestic demand from phosphate production as export restrictions are lifted and a shortage of copper concentrate may limit the potential for acid exports.
The refining industry continues to pivot towards Asia, with knock-on effects for sulphur output.
The International Fertilizer Association (IFA) elected seven new representatives to its Board of Directors at its Annual General Meeting, held in Singapore on 22 May. The AGM took place on the final day of the IFA Annual Conference 2024. The seven new Board Directors elected by the membership are: Bruce Bodine , Mosaic; Soufiyane El Kassi , OCP Nutricrops; Xiaofeng Hou , China BlueChemical; Dmitry Konyaev , Uralchem JSC; Jahangir Piracha , Fauji Fertilizer Company Ltd; Edward Weiner , Trammo, Inc.; and Kelvin Wickham , Ballance Agri-Nutrients.
In a major milestone, Yara International has officially opened its renewable hydrogen plant at Herøya Industrial Park, Porsgrunn, Norway.
A lot of low-carbon ammonia projects have been announced in recent years – so many, in fact, you’ve probably lost count.
Sulphur plays an important role in crop nutrition. Indeed, sulphur is increasingly being recognised as the fourth major crop nutrient alongside N, P and K. However, a combination of intensive agricultural practices, increasing application of high-analysis fertilizers and tighter air quality regulations has led to increasing sulphur deficiency in soils. In this insight article, CRU’s Peter Harrisson looks at what’s driving sulphur deficiency and whether there’s a gap in the market for sulphur fertilizers.
Urease and nitrification inhibitors are cost efficient and easy to implement solutions for improving the nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) of urea ammonium nitrate (UAN). The use of inhibitors enables farmers to substantially reduce nitrogen losses and achieve their environmental targets, explains Thomas Profitt , Syensqo’s Global Enhanced Efficiency Fertilizer Manager, while improving crop yields and generating a positive return on investment.
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.