The economic conversion of phosphogypsum waste into a valuable product has been pursued for decades. Although phosphogypsum is still generally disposed of as waste, industry attitudes are changing and greater use of phosphogypsum will be expected in a circular economy.
Casale has acquired Hong Kong-based Green Granulation Ltd (GGL), and its proprietary technologies for the design and construction of urea and calcium ammonium nitrate (CAN) granulation systems. Casale says that the takeover is part of a broader strategy aimed at strengthening its leading position in the nitrogen market by leveraging the widest integrated portfolio of efficient technologies, enabling the company to offer a ‘one stop shop’ for the entire production cycle of nitrogen-based fertilizers, from raw materials to final products. GGL’s addition to the Casale group includes the Cold Recycle Granulation process, an advanced fluidised bed technology designed to accept a lower concentration of urea feed melt (ca 96% urea and biuret), as well as a proprietary design for both granulator and scrubber, a team of experts and qualified technicians, and considerable experience in several industrial references. The CRG design has a horizontal layout, leading to lower structural costs and higher efficiency, as well as lower total investment costs and power consumption, lower power consumption and simplified operation, and higher operational flexibility in urea and CAN granulation.
Gidara Energy has agreed with the Port of Rotterdam to develop a new waste to methanol facility in the Netherlands: Advanced Methanol Rotterdam (AMR). Gidara will duplicate its Advanced Methanol Amsterdam project as a template for AMR, using Gidara’s patented high temperature Winkler (HTW® ) technology, which converts nonrecyclable waste to renewable fuels. This technology has been used commercially in four other waste to syngas production facilities. AMR will convert around 180,000 t/a of non-recyclable waste into 90,000 t/a of methanol, while capturing all waste streams for use; CO2 will be captured and led to local greenhouses; bottom product residue will be used for cement production; and other streams like ammonia and salts will be sold and put to use as feed stock for other industries and road salt respectively, creating a fully circular concept. The facility is scheduled to start detail engineering and construction in the first half of 2023, when a permit is received, and start production of renewable methanol in 2025.
EuroChem Group recently completed the purchase of the Serra do Salitre project from Yara International for $452 million. This one million tonne capacity Brazilian phosphate project is due to be completed in 2024.
INEOS says that it is aiming to forward its plans for a ‘net zero’ future for its Grangemouth site in Scotland by inviting major engineering design contractors to tender for the next stage of the design of a world scale carbon capture enabled hydrogen plant and associated infrastructure.
The inclusion of several high-profile Russian business leaders on an EU sanctions list in March has led to round of high-level resignations from leading Russian fertilizer producers.
German slurry handling specialist Vogelsang has just launched a new acidification technology which it claims will reduce ammonia emissions from agriculture, reducing up to 70% of ammonia to nutrient rich ammonium. Its new SyreN technology is an onboard sulphuric acid dosing system for tractors that treats slurry or digestate as it is applied to the land. It uses a front-linkage mounted unit to carry the acid, which also improves tractor weight distribution. The acid is dosed when the organic fertiliser is fed to the applicator, with a pH regulator automatically controlling and adjusting the flow. Nitrogen uptake of organic fertilizer is also increased by up to 1/3 as the ammonium is more easily metabolised by the soil. Results from a study in Germany showed that the acidifying slurry increased crop yield by up to 20%. The sulphur contained in the acid also becomes available to the plants as sulphate after spreading, eliminating the need for an additional pass over the field to administer a supplementary sulphur fertiliser, such as ammonium sulphate nitrate. At approximately 30 kg/ha, the amount of sulphur introduced into the crop with the SyreN system corresponds to the average amount of sulphur that is already applied to crops in the course of a growing season.
Nutrien Ltd has announced that Mayo Schmidt has left his position as president and CEO of Nutrien and has resigned from the Board. Ken Seitz , Executive Vice President and CEO of Potash, has been named the company’s interim CEO. Seitz brings extensive global leadership experience in the agriculture and mining sectors and is well-positioned to progress the company’s stated strategy and lead the integrated business during the transition.
In China, requirements for methanol to produce olefins, mainly propylene and ethylene, from coal, has driven much of the growth in global methanol demand over the past decade. However, a new wave of ethylene cracker investment may put a stop to new MTO plant building.
Rapidly escalating natural gas prices forced plant closures across Europe during September. Worst affected was the UK, where a fire at a cross-Channel electricity cable and low output from wind energy has, combined with low domestic storage capacity led to a surge in demand for gas for power stations and wholesale gas prices reached a record 350 pence per therm (equivalent to $46/ MMBtu) in October. On September 15th, CF Industries announced that it was halting operations at both its Billingham and Ince fertilizer plans due to high gas prices. Although ammonia prices have also risen, they have not kept pace with gas price rises, and there is a limit to what farmers could be expected to pay. CF CEO Anthony Will said: “$900 is the gas cost in a tonne of ammonia and the last trade in the ammonia market that was done was $700 a tonne”. As these plants supply most of the UK’s carbon dioxide for food and drink manufacture, the government said it would provide “limited financial support” to keep the Billingham plant operational, and that plant re-started on September 21st. Meanwhile, BASF closed its Antwerp and Ludwigshafen plants in Belgium and Germany due to what the company called “extremely challenging” economics. Fertiberia ceased production at its Palos de la Frontera site in Spain, and Puertellano remained down for scheduled maintenance. Yara shut 40% of its European ammonia production in September, and OCI partially closed its Geleen plant in the Netherlands. Achema in Lithuania decided against restarting its ammonia plant following maintenance in August, and OPZ in Ukraine shut one ammonia line at Odessa, with Ostchem and DniproAzot likely to follow. Borealis in Austria also reduced production.