Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has hit European fertilizer producers hard. Ammonia plants across the continent have been inactive over the winter due to prohibitively high feedstock costs. The future of nitrogen fertilizer production in the region will depend on access to an affordable, secure and sustainable energy supply and the switchover to low-carbon technologies.
Brazil’s agricultural industry continues to expand at the same time that most of its nitrogen fertilizer industry has shut down. Meanwhile, Venezuela continues to deal with the consequences of years of underinvestment and mismanagement, and elsewhere, gas discoveries in other parts of the continent have not led to the new plant construction boom that had once been hoped for.
The steam methane reformer is at the heart of most world-scale synthesis gas plants for ammonia, methanol or hydrogen production, and its optimum performance will maximise plant production and efficiency. This article studies the wide variety of parameters that need to be considered if a steam methane reformer is optimised.
Håkon Reistad Fure stepped down from Yara International’s board of directors in mid-November due to new professional commitments, the company has announced.
Market Insight courtesy of Argus Media. Urea: The market remained weak at the start of the year with urea prices falling as producers fought for liquidity. Egyptian product fell by $40/t to $495/t f.o.b. in a matter of days, while f.o.b. prices in the Middle East and southeast Asia similarly fell to around $440/t. Urea prices in many end-user markets also slumped: US prices fell over the course of the first week of January by $30/t, Brazil by $15/t and many European markets by around $20/t.
Yara International is to supply fossil-free fertilizers to El Parque Papas, Argentina’s largest potato grower, in 2023.
Fertilizer International presents a global round-up of phosphate rock, phosphoric acid and finished phosphates projects.
CRU Events will host the 2023 Nitrogen + Syngas conference and exhibition at the Hyatt Regency Barcelona Tower in Barcelona, 6-8 March.
A review of the current slate of plans for green and blue ammonia production.
The past year has been a difficult, even disastrous one for Europe’s fertilizer producers. High natural gas prices have kept plants shuttered, with 70% of the continent’s ammonia production shut down at times. It remains uncertain how much of this will return to production this year, or indeed ever.