Fertilizer International 509 Jul-Aug 2022
31 July 2022
And then there was one
“Billingham remains an enduring symbol of the global nitrogen industry, still producing ammonia some 98 years after its inception.”
In a major blow to the British fertilizer industry, CF Fertilisers UK announced the closure of its Ince production site in north-west England in June (see p8). Ince is the UK’s largest compound fertilizer producer, operating three NPK+S units. It also manufactures large volumes of ammonium nitrate (AN) for Britain’s farmers. At the heart of the Cheshire complex is Ince’s long-standing ammonia plant. Unfortunately, high natural gas costs have kept this shuttered since September last year.
The planned closure of Ince ends 50-60 years of ammonia and fertilizer production at the site. Its ammonia plant was originally built and owned by ShellStar (Shell/Armour Star) in 1965 and compound fertilizers have been produced on-site since 1969. Subsequently, Ince has been Dutch-, Finnish-, Norwegian- and latterly US-owned.
The closure will leave Billingham as the UK’s sole manufacturing site for ammonia-based fertilizers. CF believes that Billingham is better positioned than Ince as a sustainable UK fertilizer production centre. It says the site has enough capacity to meet all of Britain’s forecast demand for AN fertilizer. Billingham is also more efficient than Ince with 10-20 percent lower production costs, according to the company.
The planned closure of Ince is the latest in a series of shutdowns and consolidations that have marked the long decline of the once mighty UK ammonia industry. British production of this basic chemical has a proud history and – under former corporate giant Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) – the UK was also a leading global centre for innovation in ammonia technology and catalysis.
Notable ICI innovations and breakthroughs include the leading concept ammonia (LCA) and the low-pressure, low-energy ammonia V (AMV) processes, as well as the company’s renowned nickel and high-activity cobalt catalysts.
The rise and fall of UK ammonia manufacturing – and the central role of (ICI) – was dissected last year in a fascinating monograph* by Dr Anthony Travis of Jerusalem’s Hebrew University. He quotes a typically forthright Sir John Harvey-Jones, ICI’s former chairman, from a mid-1980s BBC lecture entitled ‘Does industry matter?’.
At that time, Harvey-Jones could boast that ICI was the world’s most profitable chemical company, contributing £2 billion a year to the UK economy. He said:
“It is manufacturing industry whose praises I want to sing. It is often suggested that tourism offers salvation. It is equally clear that this cannot be…. if we imagine the UK can get by with a bunch of people in smocks showing tourists around medieval castles we are quite frankly out of our tiny minds.”
Yet within 20 years, ICI’s name had completely vanished from Britain’s business landscape when what remained of the company was sold to Netherlands-based AkzoNobel in 2008.
Large-scale commercial ammonia production began in Billingham in 1924, under ICI’s predecessor Brunner, Mond & Co. By the 1960s, when ICI was the world’s largest ammonia producer, it operated four other ammonia plants at Heysham, Wilton, Severnside and Immingham. As Dr Travis notes:
“By the 1980s… ICI’s engagement in the relevant technologies, including novel high-activity catalysts, and two low-pressure ammonia processes, had an almost mythical provenance, at least among chemical engineers. This, however, has received scant attention from historians of the chemical industry.”
At its zenith in the 1980s, ICI operated eight ammonia units in the UK. But this seemingly unassailable position was not to last. With profits from commodities dwindling, the company subsequently sold off its ammonia and nitrogen fertilizer production assets in the 1990s as part of a divestment programme.
CF Industries ultimately gained complete ownership of Billingham and Ince, the UK’s two remaining ammonia-based fertilizer production sites, seven years ago. The Illinois-headquartered company renamed the business CF Fertilisers UK in 2015, having bought Yara’s 50 percent equity stake in the two operations.
Dr Travis compares the story of the modern chemical industry to the histories of nations in that it reveals a complex tale of landmark – yet often unrecognised – achievements. “A case in point is ammonia production, in which ICI, notwithstanding its disappearance, played a prominent role,” Travis writes.
ICI’s legacy remains. Its spirit lives on via the continuing success of Britain’s Johnson Matthey, for example, which continues to develop acclaimed catalysts.
Billingham also remains an enduring symbol for the global nitrogen industry, still producing ammonia some 98 years after its inception. Here’s hoping it remains operative into its centenary year in 2024 and well beyond.
