Efficient and responsible fertilizer production

Environmental issues concerning the production of fertilizers include potential pollution of air, water and land. There are hazards to be avoided in each part of the production chain, as well as questions of occupational health and safety for all those who work in close proximity to these products.

The industry has made significant progress in recent decades to improve its efficiency and thus reduce its environmental footprint. In the energy-intensive ammonia sector, for example, energy consumption per unit of product is 30% less than it was four decades ago, and the best performers are approaching the thermodynamic limit of minimum energy use. Phosphate producers are able to capture energy from their exothermic processes and either re-use the energy or sell it back into the electricity grid.

Planning for the entire life cycle of mine sites – including closure and site rehabilitation – permits a more efficient and environmentally effective outcome. It identifies and creates opportunities for improving the economic and environmental performance of the operation. Previously unrecovered resources may be retrieved and former wastes converted into useful products. Emphasis is placed on closing the circle, with the rehabilitation of the site, and on the importance of planning for this from the outset.

Atmospheric pollutants emitted by the fertilizer industry can include gaseous ammonia (NH₃) and ammonium salt aerosols, nitric and nitrous oxides (NO and N₂O), carbon dioxide (CO₂) fluorine – as silicon fluoride (SiF₄ ) and hydrogen fluoride (HF) – sulphur oxides (SO_x), fertilizer dust and acid mists.

Naturally occurring radiation (from phosphogypsum) may also be present.

Waste waters from the industry can include compounds of nitrogen, phosphate, potassium, sodium, silica, sulphur, fluorine as well as sludges and polluted wash water.

Solid wastes or by-products, which may or may not be reprocessed, can include phosphogypsum, pyrite ashes, calcium carbonate, soluble salts from potash refining, sand and, not least, the plastic bags used to transport the fertilizer. Several chemical residues are generated from the catalysts and other associated operations, and they require special management procedures. In addition, the fertilizer product itself can carry impurities to the soil, mostly in negligible amounts.

Building a fertilizer production facility is a major investment that is intended to last for decades. New plants are able to incorporate innovative technologies with better environmental performances. Older plants can only install technologies when they are revamped. It is generally economical to conduct these costly refittings only during a capacity upgrade or efficiency improvement. Because efficiency and environmental performance usually go hand-in-hand, economics has contributed to the industry’s improving environmental performance. In the regions that have undergone economic restructuring, it is generally the least efficient plants that have been permanently closed.

Finding new uses for co-products that are currently considered to be “wastes” is another way to reduce the industry’s environmental footprint. Phosphogypsum , which is produced in large quantities by the phosphate sector, is a case in point.

IFA has a long-standing commitment to efficient and responsible production. In 2000, IFA was an early signatory of the UNEP International Declaration on Cleaner Production . IFA has a number of activities that encourage its members to continually improve the safety, health and environmental performance of fertilizer production activities. These include:

• IFA adopted 12 Safety, Health and Environment principles to guide its members’ operations.
• The IFA Safety Handbook provides guidance to IFA’s members on safety management system at the production site.
• IFA’s Technical Committee has been benchmarking members’ safety performance since 2001.
• In 2009, IFA bestowed its first Green Leaf Trophy for excellence in Safety, Health and the Environment in fertilizer production for “Innovation and Distinction in SHE Performance in Fertilizer Production”.
• March 2009 marked the first IFA Global Safety Summit for companies interested in the latest developments and driving issues in the areas of occupational safety and health, and security in the workplace.
• The Technical Committee regularly surveys members to benchmark environmental emissions . A special survey for ammonia producers covers energy consumption and CO2 emissions.
• Every two years, IFA teams up with the International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC) to hold technical training workshops for engineers in the fertilizer industry.
• The working group on the Harmonization of Fertilizer Sampling and Quality Analysis Methods is developing industry best practices, which among other impacts, will help to improve safe practices in this area.