Maya Rehill of Anglo American Crop Nutrients discusses the latest crop trial findings for the polyhalite product POLY4 with the company’s regional agronomists. These highly positive trial results add to an already extensive evidence base on POLY4’s crop benefits.
Hans Vrijenhoef has stepped down as Chief Executive Officer of Proton Ventures with immediate effect. He will continue to serve as non-executive chairman of the management board for at least another three years to support the growth of the existing business of green ammonia production technologies. Paul Baan succeeded Hans Vrijenhoef as of April 1st, 2021. Baan has served in leadership positions at Ørsted and EON. He is an engineer by background who has a strong understanding of Power to X technology and business cases.
Although 2020 saw a contraction in GDP by 10% due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, the country had been one of the fastest growing of the world’s top 10 economies, with growth of 8.3% in 2016, although this had slowed to 4.1% in 2019. Its population is growing, and it is due to become the most populous country in the world by 2027 according to UN figures, with total population reaching 1.64 billion by 2050. The country thus continues to require more food, leading to rising sulphur/sulphuric acid consumption for the phosphate industry on the one hand, although increasing vehicle use and growth in domestic refining is also leading to some additional sulphur production.
Calgary-based Pieridae Energy Ltd says that it has hired a new Chief Operating Officer as from April 5th. Darcy Reding is a professional engineer with 30 years of experience in small and medium-sized private and public upstream oil and gas companies, 20 years of that in leadership roles. Reding spent the last decade at NAL Resources as VP of Operations and VP Operations & Geoscience. Prior to NAL, Reding held technical and leadership roles with Norcen Energy, Northrock Resources, Samson Exploration and Enterra Energy Trust.
More than 250 delegates from 36 countries participated in the 2021 Fertilizer Latino Americano Virtual Conference, 25-28 January 2021. To highlight this successful event, we report on selected keynote and regional presentations.
The Mosaic Company received the 2020 Robert W Campbell Award from the US National Safety Council in February. This prestigious award celebrates the company’s excellence in environment, health and safety (EHS) and its achievements over a decade of continuous improvement. During this period Mosaic’s commitment to EHS has delivered an 80 percent improvement in its recordable injury rate and led to the creation of its Risk Reduction Program.
Plant operators require effective and efficient equipment for cooling the solid materials generated during fertilizer production. The main options include fluid bed coolers, rotary coolers and bulk flow coolers.
An industry-wide push for greater environmentally accountability is driving the need for improved fertilizer cooling methods. Not only is indirect cooling technology more environmentally-friendly, says Igor Makarenko of Solex Thermal Science, it also provides fertilizer manufacturers with a better product.
Bodo Albrecht, BASF writes: Among the many sad news of 2020 is the passing of Alan Heywood, a leading authority in the advancement of nitric acid catalysts and recovery systems. At the time I first met Alan in 1997, he already had 6 patents to his name ranging from improved aircraft gas turbine igniters and “ZGS” grain stabilized precious metal composite materials to PGPs “cartridge” catalyst, arguably the first true catalyst system ever produced.
Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) has unveiled plans to build Europe’s largest power-to-ammonia facility at the Danish port of Esbjerg, based on electricity from offshore wind turbines. The company said the plant will consist of 1GW of electrolysis capacity, capable of supplying sufficient hydrogen to produce 300,000 t/a of ammonia, and that the ammonia will be used as both as agricultural fertiliser and as fuel for the shipping industry. Excess heat generated in the process would be used to provide heating for around one third of local households in communities around the plant, to be sited on the west coast of Denmark. The company has signed a memorandum of understanding for the project with companies from both the agriculture and shipping sectors, including Danish Crown, Arla, DLG, Maersk and DFDS Seaways. CIP anticipates that it would cost approximately $1.2 billion to build the facility. They are currently seeking investors for the project and expect that the investment decision would be reached by 2023. The plant could enter commercial operations in 2026.