Tag: Production

Improvements to nutrient use efficiency (NUE), particularly for nitrogen, can deliver dual environmental and economic benefits. We report on recent developments in nitrogen management and global progress on NUE.

More than 230 delegates from 45 countries participated in CRU’s Sustainable Fertilizer Production Technology Forum, 20-23 September 2021. To highlight this successful virtual event, we report on keynote and selected technical presentations.

Yield, quality and profitability are the primary focus for the modern potato grower. But these objectives need to be balanced against the need to reduce the environmental impacts that result from cultivating the world’s fourth-biggest food crop. Fertilizer International talks to David Marks of Levity Crop Science about how its unique approach to product development is helping farmers adopt more sustainable agricultural practices.

PhosAgro’s Evgeniya Mescherova and Boris Levin explain how new EU and Russian regulations, designed to safeguard the environment and human health, are improving global support for both soil health and food security.

Dr Heike Thie l and Dr Wilm Fecke of K+S Minerals and Agriculture GmbH outline how better nutrient management can reduce potato yield losses during lengthy dry spells – and make better use of the available water.

New innovations and the latest equipment options from FEECO International, Casale, thyssenkrupp Fertilizer Technology and Eirich are helping to perfect the fertilizer finishing process.

With globalisation seemingly in retreat, the protectionist impulse is seeing a rise in barriers to trade, from quotas and tariffs to anti-dumping actions and domestic subsidies.

Topsoe has begun operations at a demonstration plant for the production of methanol from biogas. The aim is to validate the company’s electrified technology for cost-competitive production of sustainable methanol from biogas as well as other products. The project is supported by the EUDP Energy Technology Development and Demonstration Program and is developed together with Aarhus University, Sintex A/S, Blue World Technology, Technical University of Denmark, Energinet A/S, Aalborg University, and Plan-Energi. The demonstration plant is located at Aarhus University’s research facility in Foulum, and will have an annual capacity of 7.9 t/a of CO 2 -neutral methanol from biogas and green power and is scheduled to be fully operational by the beginning of 2022. It uses Topsoe’s eSMR ™ technology, which is CO 2 -neutral when based on biogas as feedstock and green electricity for heating. It also uses half the CO 2 that makes up about 40% of biogas and typically is costly to separate and vent in production of grid quality biogas.

Scanfeld™ is the world’s first remote sensing solution for fully automated early-warning gas leak detection for chemical plants. Using FTIR spectroscopy, Scanfeld™ identifies hundreds of different gases in real time from kilometres away. With just a few Scanfeld™ sensor units, large production sites, tank farms, or gas loading areas can be monitored reliably. Gas leaks are quickly detected, and the formation of dangerous gas clouds is monitored, measured, and visualised. René Braun of Grandperspective discusses how the system works and how it is being applied in industry.

Although the number of new sour gas developments has slowed in recent years compared to the large boost of the previous decade, sour gas projects continue to be a major source of new sulphur production.