Anglo American is developing the Woodsmith project in northeast England. This will access the world’s largest known deposit of polyhalite, a natural mineral fertilizer containing potassium, sulphur, magnesium and calcium – four of the six nutrients that every plant needs to grow.
Mining giant BHP’s decision this August to dispose of its oil and gas assets to Woodside Petroleum (see Industry News, page 11) in a deal estimated at $29 billion is certainly eye-catching. But it is also part of a larger pattern of divestment of fossil fuel assets by oil and gas companies who have dominated the industry for decades. It follows divestment by investors, institutional and otherwise, as efforts to tackle climate change consistently point towards a future where we will be using gas, and especially oil, far less – indeed, where many are talking about achieving ‘net zero’ carbon emissions by the middle of the century or shortly thereafter.
India’s power and renewable energy minister RK Singh has placed draft plans before the cabinet for the country’s refining and fertilizer sectors to switch to renewable ‘green’ hydrogen feeds. Other energy intensive sectors such as steel and transport are likely to follow. The policy suggests that refiners must have 10% of their hydrogen consumption generated from renewable electricity by the end of financial year 2023-24, rising to 25% by 2030. The comparable figures for ammonia/urea production are 5% and 20%, respectively. India is pursuing some of the world’s most ambitious renewable energy targets of 175 GW of renewable energy capacity by the end of 2022 and 450 GW by 2030.
Preliminary engineering work has started on a renewable powerto-fertilizer plant in Kenya.
A consortium has unveiled plans to build one of the largest green hydrogen plants in the world in a bid to make Oman a leader in renewable energy technology. The $30 billion project is being developed by Oman’s state-owned oil firm OQ, green fuels developer InterContinental Energy and Kuwait government-backed renewables investor EnerTech. Construction is scheduled to start in 2028 in Al Wusta governorate on the Arabian Sea. It will be built in stages, with the aim to be at full capacity by 2038, powered by 25 GW of wind and solar energy. Two years has already been spent on solar and wind monitoring analysis for the development. According to the consortium, the site chosen has the optimal diurnal profile of strong wind at night and reliable sun during the day, and is also located near the coast for seawater intake and electrolysis.
With demand for conventional fuels projected to peak and fall over the next decade, some refiners are looking to petrochemical production as a way of diversifying their product slate.
Maire Tecnimont SpA says that its subsidiaries MET Development, Stamicarbon and NextChem have collectively begun work on a renewable power-to-fertilizer plant in Kenya. MET Development has signed an agreement with Oserian Development Company for the development of the plant at the Oserian Two lakes Industrial Park, on the southern banks of Lake Naivasha, 100 km north of Nairobi.
What lessons can be learnt from the successful commissioning and start-up of major fertilizer industry construction projects? Recent case studies from the nitrogen, phosphate and potash industries provide some interesting answers.
Gasification technology offers the promise of being able to convert the increasing volumes of municipal waste generated by society into useful chemical products. In spite of a patchy commercial record, interest in the process remains high.
Phosphogypsum is finding increasing use in plaster and cement manufacture, roadbed construction and afforestation. We look at how previously unwanted solid waste generated by the phosphate industry is being turned into a valued resource.