Fertilizer Industry News

Fertilizer Industry News

UNITED STATES

North America’s largest green ammonia project

CF Industries has signed an agreement with thyssenkrupp to develop a commercial-scale green ammonia project at its Donaldsonville production complex in Louisiana.

thyssenkrupp secured the engineering and procurement (EPC) contract for a 20 megawatt (MW) alkaline water electrolysis plant from CF in April. By supplying carbon-free hydrogen for ammonia synthesis at the Donaldsonville site, this plant will enable the production of 20,000 tonnes of green ammonia annually.

Construction and installation of the new electrolysis plant – which will be managed by CF Industries – is scheduled to commence in the second half of 2021 and finish in 2023. CF says it will meet the cost of the project through its existing capital expenditure budget. This is typically in the range $400-450 million annually.

When completed in 2023, the Donaldsonville green ammonia project will be the largest of its kind in North America.

“Today we launch a new era for CF Industries as we sign a definitive agreement to develop the first commercial-scale green ammonia project in North America,” said Tony Will, CF Industries president and CEO. “This project highlights the competitive advantage of our world class ammonia production… and reinforces our commitment to make significant progress in reducing our carbon footprint by 2030.”

CF Industries, the world’s largest ammonia producer, is developing ammonia as a clean energy source. This includes plans to produce ammonia via several routes – using either carbon-free hydrogen (green ammonia) or carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technology and certified carbon abatement projects (blue ammonia).

The 20MW thyssenkrupp electrolysis unit selected for the Donaldsonville project is modular, allowing additional units to be added at the site in future to scale-up green ammonia production. CF says it will purchase all the electricity needed to power the electrolysis unit from available grid-connected renewable energy sources.

“We are pleased to partner with thyssenkrupp on our first green ammonia project at Donaldsonville,” said Ashraf Malik, CF’s senior vice president, manufacturing and distribution. “Their established and reliable technology complements our commitment to the clean energy economy. By integrating the water electrolysis plant into existing ammonia production at Donaldsonville, we will build on our ammonia manufacturing expertise and identify efficiencies that will allow us to scale production in the future.”

With six ammonia plants, Donaldsonville is the world’s largest ammonia manufacturing complex. thyssenkrupp has an established relationship with CF, having delivered Donaldsonville’s largest ammonia plant for the company. This operates using thyssenkrupp’s proprietary Uhde® process.

“Following the recent delivery of two world-scale ammonia and fertilizer plants to CF Industries we are honored to have now been selected by our long-term customer to contribute to the decarbonization of their operations and to support them in their mission to provide clean energy to feed and fuel the world sustainably,” commented Dennis Lippmann, president, chemical & process technologies, at thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions USA.

thyssenkrupp is a leading electrolysis equipment supplier with a strong footprint in North America. Regionally, the company has installed electrolysis units with a total capacity exceeding 1.4 gigawatts (GW) over the last 30 years. Combined, these units can generate more than 290,000 Nm3/h of hydrogen.

North America is one of the company’s key regions, says Dr Christoph Noeres, head of green hydrogen at thyssenkrupp Uhde Chlorine Engineers: “This second water electrolysis success after the recent announcement of an installation in Canada shows the region’s leading role in making the green hydrogen economy a real deal.”

CF committed to net zero – the complete decarbonisation of its production base – by 2050 as part of a new strategy unveiled last October (Fertilizer International 499, p8). Also in North America, Monolith Materials has announced plans to build a 275,000 t/a green ammonia plant in Nebraska using a proprietary methane pyrolysis process (Fertilizer International 499, p8). In Europe, Yara is pressing ahead with plans to completely convert its 500,000 t/a Porsgrunn plant in Norway to green ammonia production by 2026 (Fertilizer International 500, p10).

Phosphate imports duties confirmed

Import duties on phosphate fertilizers from Morocco and Russia have been confirmed by the United States International Trade Commission (ITC).

The ITC concluded in a ruling in March that subsidies associated with these imports are injuring the US phosphates industry. As a result of the ruling, the US Department of Commerce (DOC) will continue to with ‘countervailing duties’ on Moroccan and Russian import introduced at the end of November last year (Fertilizer International 500, p8). These were imposed following the launch of an ITC investigation in August 2020. This, in turn, had been prompted by a petition from US phosphates producer Mosaic (Fertilizer International 497, p8).

The US will now impose the following phosphate fertilizer import duties for at least five years:

• 19.97 percent for imports from Moroccan producer OCP
• 9.19 percent for imports from Russian producer PhosAgro
• 47.05 percent for imports from Russian producer EuroChem
• 17.20 percent for imports from other Russian producers.

These duties are based on estimates of each company’s subsidy levels, as determined by the DOC in February.

Commenting on the latest ITC ruling, Joc O’Rourke, Mosaic’s president and CEO, said: “Mosaic employees are proud to support American farmers by producing high quality, reliable fertilizer. Today’s decision upholds our belief that fair trade is a cornerstone of a healthy US economy, and that American farmers will benefit from having a more competitive American fertilizer industry.”

OCP Group hopes to continue supplying fertilizers to US farmers. “Despite this decision, OCP recognizes the supply challenges that American farmers face and is determined to serve them in the future, and will explore the most appropriate options to do so,” it said in a statement.

Analysts expect the import duties to prompt major changes in phosphate trade flows and pricing. Commenting on their introduction last year, Glen Kurokawa, CRU Group’s phosphate analyst, said: “Mosaic and other US phosphate fertilizer producers should be pleased with the result. The decision increases the likelihood they will receive some protection from imports from lower cost producers entering their home market.”

Kurokawa added: “We’ve already seen dramatic changes in global phosphate flows since Mosaic filed its trade petition in July. Price spreads in the global and North American markets will change as a result.

“These duty rates indicate potentially big consequences for the future of US and global phosphate trade. The stakes are big.”

Phosphate recovery plant under construction

Mineral Development LLC (MDL) has broken ground on a $70 million secondary phosphate recovery plant in Polk County, Florida.

The MDL plant is the first independent phosphate beneficiation plant to be built in the US for over 30 years. The company gave the go ahead for contractor DCO Energy to proceed last October. Construction is expected to take 22 months.

The recovery plant will produce 1.2 million t/a of high-grade phosphate rock concentrate (29-34% P2 O5 ) by surface mining phosphate-rich tailings left behind from mining operations that took place between 19301980 at the former Noralyn phosphate mine.

Commenting on the project’s launch, Lance McNeil, MDL’s CEO, said:

“MDL is extremely pleased to work with DCO on this secondary recovery project. MDL selected DCO because of its outstanding track record of on-time and on-budget delivery.

“Secondary recovery reprocesses old mine tailings into high-quality feedstock for fertilizer production. The project only extracts material from land that has been previously mined, the vast majority of which was disturbed before mandatory reclamation regulations, and MDL will reclaim this land according to modern reclamation standards.

“Secondary recovery is an efficient and responsible way to provide the world with the resources it requires to feed its growing population. It creates jobs for the community, supplies high-quality products to support farmers, and increases the value of the land.”

The recovery process, as well as extracting high-grade phosphate, helps restore land and surface waters to their original state by planting native vegetation.

The innovative first-of-its-kind project is being funded by $90 million in bonds issued by the Polk County Industrial Development Authority.

Florida declares emergency over phosphate waste stack leak

A water leak from a former phosphate mine site at Piney Point, Manatee County, prompted Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to declare a state of emergency on 4th April.

Manatee County Administrator Scott Hopes warned of the risk of catastrophic flooding to adjacent land, most of which is agricultural. “We are talking about the potential of about 600 million gallons (2.3 billion litres) within a matter of seconds and minutes, leaving that retention pool and going around the surrounding area,” he said.

Engineers first found a leak in the liner of a 77-acre (31-hectare) retention pond at Piney Point in late March. The pond, part of a phosphogypsum stack (gyp stack), stores hundreds of millions of gallons of impounded water.

Around 300 homes, businesses, and the nearby Manatee County Jail were subsequently evacuated due to the risk of catastrophic flooding from a full breach in the liner. US highway 41 was also closed.

Officials responded to the emergency by pumping more than 200 million gallons of pond water from the stack into Tampa Bay. The pumping was halted on 8th April to allow treatment of the remaining water.

The pond water was not radioactive, according to Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection, although concerns were expressed over the presence of elevated nitrogen and phosphorus levels.

Governor DeSantis described the pond water as “primarily saltwater”, stored from a dredging project at Port Manatee, mixed with “legacy process water and storm water run-off”. He said that the water was not radioactive, as had been feared, and that the priority was to prevent a “real catastrophic flood situation”. To prevent this, emergency workers assisted by the Florida National Guard started to pump water out of the pond into Tampa Bay at a rate of 33 million gallons a day.

Florida lifted the local evacuation order and reopened US 41 to traffic on 6th April. This was after the US Army Corps of Engineers lowered the risk of an uncontrolled breach of water from the Piney Point gyp stack.

Phosphate mining at Piney Point halted 20 years ago after the mine owners Mulberry Corporation went bankrupt, leaving the site with three gyp stacks and associated process waters. The site is currently owned by HRK Holdings.

Compass Minerals sells micronutrient business to Koch

Compass Minerals is selling its North American micronutrient business to Koch Agronomic Services (KAS), a subsidiary of Koch Industries, for $60.25 million.

Under the terms of the sell-off, announced in April, Koch will acquire Compass Minerals’ Wolf Trax® , Rocket Seeds® and Hydro Bullet™ micronutrient brands and assets. This includes intellectual property, inventory, customer and marketing materials, and research and development projects currently in progress.

In a statement, Compass Minerals said the divestment was a strategic step that would allow the company to concentrate on its core businesses. These include three North American and the UK salt mines, and production and packaging plants in North America. The company also retains its Great Salt Lake solar evaporation operations at Ogden. These produce Protassium+®, the company’s sulphate of potash (SOP) fertilizer.

This latest divestment comes weeks after Compass announced the sale of its Brazil-based subsidiary Compass Minerals América do Sul (formerly Produquímica) to ICL in March (see below). Combined, the two sell-offs signal a reversal in strategy for Compass Minerals. Previously, the company’s ambition had been to expand its crop nutrient business to match the size of its salt business. This included the acquisition of Produquímica in 2016.

“Today’s announcement, combined with the previously announced sale of our South America specialty plant nutrition business, highlights our strategic focus on strengthening our balance sheet and maximizing the productivity of our core operations,” said Kevin Crutchfield, Compass Minerals’ president and CEO. “We look forward to continuing to drive value for all stakeholders while producing and marketing an array of raw and manufactured materials supporting the transportation, agricultural, chemical, food and animal nutrition sectors.”

The purchase of these leading micronutrient brands will strengthen and broaden Koch’s speciality fertilizer portfolio.

“At Koch, we strive to provide solutions to make every ton of nutrient applied more efficient than it is today, and this agreement allows us to offer a platform of innovative solutions for nutrients beyond nitrogen,” said Steve Coulter, senior vice president of Koch. “We look forward to continuing the growth of these products and supporting our customers’ micronutrients needs.”

BRAZIL

ICL buys Compass Minerals’ crop nutrients business

Israel’s ICL has entered into a definitive agreement to buy Brazil-based Compass Minerals América do Sul S.A. for BRL 2,207 million ($402 million).

The purchase includes the South American crop nutrition business of Compass Minerals – minus the water treatment and chemicals businesses which will be carved-out. The transaction, announced in March, brings with it around $109 million of net debt and an earnout of up to $16 million.

Compass Minerals América do Sul was founded in 1965 and was formerly known as Produquímica until its purchase by Compass Minerals in 2016. The company is Brazil’s leading speciality fertilizer company. Its seed treatment and plant health products can be applied to all of Brazil’s key crops, including soybeans, corn, coffee, sugarcane, cotton, fruits, and vegetables. Its product range encompasses:

• Enhanced efficiency fertilizers
• Controlled-release fertilizers
• Soil and foliar micronutrients
• Secondary nutrients (calcium, magnesium and sulphur)
• Biostimulants and adjuvants.

Compass Minerals América do Sul has a presence in 25 out of Brazil’s 26 states. It serves more than 2,000 farms directly and another 30,000 farms indirectly through a network of 250 agricultural retailers and co-operatives. Headquartered in São Paulo, the company employs more than 1,000 people and operates six production sites and a research and development centre.

Compass Minerals América do Sul is a profitable and growing company. The crop nutrients side of the business generating net revenues of BRL 1,442 million ($284 million) and earnings of BRL 235 million ($46 million) in 2020. It has been growing by around 10 percent per annum over the last five years.

The purchase of this prized Brazilian fertilizer asset follows ICL’s buy-out of Fertiláqua for around $120 million last October (Fertilizer International 499, p10).

“This transaction, together with our recent acquisition of Fertiláqua in Brazil and our existing specialty plant nutrition business there, will position ICL as the leading specialty plant nutrition company in Brazil, one of the world’s fastest growing agriculture markets. This important next step delivers on our stated strategy of achieving leadership positions in high-growth specialty plant nutrition markets, such as Brazil, and also accelerates our progress toward longterm global leadership for our Innovative Ag Solutions division,” said Raviv Zoller, president and CEO of ICL.

“While the South American Plant Nutrition business is not part of our forward-looking strategy, we continue to believe the future is bright for these productive assets,” said Kevin Crutchfield, president and CEO of Compass Minerals. “We are therefore pleased to see this business, and more importantly the strong team of professionals who operate it, find such a strategic home with ICL.”

The purchase of Compass Minerals América do Sul is expected to close by the third-quarter of 2021. The sale is, however, conditional on the carve-out of the water treatment and chemicals assets, customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.

ISRAEL

ICL secures another potash contract with India’s IPL

ICL has signed a contract with Indian Potash Limited (IPL), India’s largest potash importer, to supply 600,000 tonnes of muriate of potash (MOP) this year.

The agreement runs through until the end of December 2021 and includes the option to supply an additional 50,000 tonnes of potash. The new contract, signed on 5th April, was agreed at a price of $280/t (CIFFO Indian ports), $50/t above the previous contract.

“The contract we have signed in India, one of ICL’s strategic markets, is part of the five-year supply agreement we signed in 2018 with IPL. This contract further testifies to the leading position ICL has in this market and reflects the growing positive momentum in the fertilizer market globally. Favourable weather conditions, an increase in planted areas, and tight supply are contributing to solid global demand for potash,” said Eli Amon, ICL’s chief commercial officer.

In January, the Belarusian Potash Company (BPC) agreed to supply IPL with 800,000 tonnes of potash in 2021 at a price of $247/t cfr – an increase of $17/t on BPC’s settlement with India last year (Fertilizer International 501, p8).

Potash supply is tight currently. Canpotex, Canada’s potash export consortium, recently announced that its international potash sales were fully committed into September 2021. “Strong demand for potash in numerous key offshore markets… continues to be supported by solid fundamentals for several major agricultural commodities and a focus on food security,” Canpotex said in a statement on 20th April.

CANADA

Nutrien commits to 30% emissions cut by 2030

Fertilizer giant Nutrien has set a target to cut its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by at least 30 percent by 2030.

The commitment is a relative not an absolute target, the 30 percent reduction being based on emissions per tonne of product, relative to a 2018 baseline.

Nutrien’s new pledge covers Scope 1 and 2 emissions generated by the company’s direct operations and its electricity use. To achieve this target, Nutrien says it will:

• Reduce nitrogen production GHG emissions by one million tonnes CO2 equivalent by the end of 2023
• Self-generate renewable energy at its four potash plants by the end of 2025 by deploying wind and solar power
• Invest in new technologies, including blue and green ammonia, and pursue the transition to low-carbon fertilizers.

Achieving these goals by 2030, estimates Nutrien, will require capital investment totalling $500-700 million.

The emissions reduction target forms part of wider set of climate and sustainable farming pledges announced in Nutrien’s 2021 environmental, social and governance (ESG) report in April. Scope 3 emissions – those arising from on-farm activity by Nutrien’s customers – are also being addressed by the launch of a carbon credit programme (Fertilizer International 500, p10). This will financially reward farmers for embracing climate-smart agriculture and improving the soil sequestration of carbon.

“We’re in a really unique spot to address two big societal challenges – food security, and in a way that reduces our environmental footprint,” Mark Thompson, Nutrien’s chief corporate development and strategy officer, told Reuters.

Carbon credits could provide farmers with a top-up of $10-20 per acre in future, estimates Nutrien. This is also in the company’s own self-interest. “If we can provide agronomic value and the value of the carbon credit over time, we’ll have customer loyalty – we anticipate that we’ll be a preferred supplier,” Thompson said.

Nutrien eventually wants to see farmers adopt sustainable agricultural products and practices on 75 million acres of croplands globally.

Chuck Magro, Nutrien’s outgoing president and CEO, said: “Nutrien is focused on meeting the United Nations’ Zero Hunger Sustainable Development Goal in the coming decade by helping growers increase food production in a sustainable manner. Our 2030 commitments and ESG performance targets are ambitious, but necessary.

“Initiatives like our comprehensive Carbon Program will help lead the next wave of agriculture’s evolution. This effort drives at the core of our strategy to feed more people, using less resources and with fewer emissions.”

RUSSIA

Acron completes ammonia revamp

Acron has completed a revamp of its Number 4 ammonia plant at Novgorod. The Ammonia-4 plant was successfully uprated to its new production capacity of 2,500 t/d, having passed guarantee test runs.

The plant was originally commissioned in 2016 at a cost $500 million. It was the first ammonia plant built domestically by Russian engineers without the support of foreign contractors.

The Ammonia-4 revamp was carried out by Acron in conjunction with Haldor Topsoe. The revised design incorporates Topsoe’s heat exchange reformer (HTER), changes to the CO2 removal section, plus other modifications.

A team of Acron engineers and Topsoe specialists, working hundreds of miles apart, completed the successful overhaul of Ammonia-4 late last year, enabling the plant to reach its new design capacity.

“Haldor Topsoe and Acron have been in successful partnership for quite a while and the revamp project, delivered in November 2020, marks another milestone in our cooperation. We believe our partnership will develop further, to the benefit of both companies,” said Peter Vang Christensen, managing director of Haldor Topsoe’s Moscow office.

Aleksandr Popov, Acron’s chairman, said: “Boosting the Ammonia-4 plant is an important project for Acron Group’s investment program… [allowing] us to increase production of nitrogenous and compound fertilizers at our Novgorod site.”

Shchekinoazot and Topsoe collaborate on emissions reduction

Haldor Topsoe and Shchekinoazot have agreed to work together to reduce the carbon footprint of Shchekinoazot’s current and future production plants in Russia’s Tula region.

As part of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed by both companies, Shchekinoazot is planning to begin production of green and blue methanol, ammonia, and hydrogen using Topsoe’s expertise and technologies. These cover reforming, electrolysis, carbon capture and use, and ammonia and methanol synthesis.

Shchekinoazot and Topsoe’s existing partnership dates back 15 years. To date, the two companies have successfully collaborated on five ammonia, methanol and hydrogen production projects. These have applied technologies and catalysts developed and supplied by Topsoe.

“We believe that with Haldor Topsoe’s support we’ll be able to lead the green transformation and be one of the frontrunners who will blaze the trail for the Russian chemical industry,” said Boris Sokol, president of Shchekinoazot.

EGYPT

Stamicarbon to revamp Abu Qir urea plant

Stamicarbon has signed a contract with Egypt’s Abu Qir Fertilizers to revamp the Abu Qir 3 urea melt plant in Alexandria.

The revamp of Abu Qir 3 will increase urea production capacity to 2,370 t/d. That compares to its current nameplate capacity of 1,750 t/d and design capacity of 1,925 t/d.

The existing urea plant dates from 1996 and uses Stamicarbon’s CO2 stripping process. Stamicarbon is providing both the license and the process design package for the revamped plant. This is expected to become operational in 2025.

The revamp is based on Stamicarbon’s EVOLVE CAPACITY™ design with medium-pressure (MP) add-on technology. This allows capacity to be expanded, but without investing in high pressure equipment or a high-pressure CO2 compressor, while simultaneously reducing energy consumption. The revamp will also reduce emissions to meet local norms.