Latest news with #Yara
Agriland
4 hours ago
- Business
- Agriland
Yara completes £7m upgrade of UK liquid fertiliser facility
Global crop nutrition company, Yara, has completed its long-term investment in liquid fertiliser capabilities at its Chedburgh terminal in the UK. The company has finalised the multi-million-pound upgrade of its liquid fertiliser terminal at Chedburgh, one of several UK terminals it operates. The £7 million phased project at the site in East Anglia is part of the overall Yara investment programme in Great Britain. The company has said the investment is aimed at ensuring safe and efficient operations, delivering high-quality products to its customers. Yara upgrade The completed project included a full rebuild of the Chedburgh terminal which produces nitrogen sulphur and compound NPK-grade liquid fertilisers. The bulk solids raw material store and the production building have been upgraded, with the terminal now fully operational. Yara has stated that central to its project planning was maintaining business continuity, with minimal impact to ongoing operations and customer experience. Terminal manager UK Liquids at Yara, Martin Saunders said: 'In order to minimise disruption, the project began post season 2024 and was completed in time for the 2025 campaign, a remarkable achievement. 'With Safe by Choice in mind, Yara worked closely with the main contractor who delivered the project on time with no reportable incidents demonstrating great teamwork from all stakeholders involved.' With this investment, Yara has said it is advancing operational excellence, securing safe, efficient operations and maintaining high product quality. It is estimated that this development will result in a 30% increase in production, achieved by a 60% increase in raw material storage capacity, improved high efficiency mixers and pipework capacity increases across the terminal. Investing in farming 'Investing in British farming is and always has been a top priority for Yara, and this investment in our Chedburgh terminal reinforces Yara's commitment to servicing our farmers in the east of England and the Midlands,' Saunders continued. The Chedburgh investment aims to contribute to Yara's ambition of achieving carbon neutrality. Reducing the terminal's carbon footprint was at the forefront of the company's decisions, from installing new boilers to adapting processes, resulting in a more environmentally sustainable operation, according to Yara. Crop nutrition farm account manager at Yara, Catherine McNair added: 'Yara's investment ensures the continuity of supply of high-quality, liquid fertiliser products to UK growers. 'The Yara Chedburgh site produces over 300 different liquid fertiliser grades across our NURAM, NUFOL and MULTI product ranges. 'The increased storage capacity has only improved our ability to better service our customer base, and this is supported by our local team of FACTS qualified crop nutrition farm account managers.'
The Guardian
28-05-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
European fertiliser plants use US ammonia made with shale gas, investigation reveals
The coastal city of Freeport, Texas is a dense tangle of metal pipes, tanks and towers. Located 60 miles south of Houston, it's home to a sprawling petrochemical complex – one of the largest and most polluting in the US. Among its facilities is a plant dedicated to the production of ammonia, a colourless compound of nitrogen and hydrogen and a key ingredient in fertilisers widely used on industrial arable farms – including on fields of barley, wheat and maize across Europe. Chemicals giants Yara and BASF opened the factory to great fanfare in 2018, promising 'cost-efficient' and 'sustainable' ammonia production. Unlike conventional plants, which use hydrogen made from natural gas, this factory would employ a hydrogen 'byproduct' from a nearby Dow plant producing components for plastic, they said, helping to tackle the fertiliser industry's sizeable carbon footprint. But an investigation by DeSmog, Data Desk and the Guardian reveals that despite these green promises, the Yara Freeport plant is relying on hydrogen made from US shale gas – one of the most environmentally and socially damaging fossil fuels – to manufacture its ammonia in Texas. Analysis of pipeline and permit documents traces the source of this gas hundreds of miles west of Freeport to the Permian Basin – the second largest gas-producing region in the US. Experts said Yara and BASF's claim the production process was gas-free was 'not true at all'. While the recycling of hydrogen results in energy savings overall, the fuel has to be replaced with fossil gas, meaning that Yara Freeport indirectly drives demand for gas. Despite these links to fracked gas and uncertain carbon savings, the investigation shows this ammonia is being shipped to fertiliser factories in Europe. Yara – which remains Europe's largest industrial buyer of natural gas and is globally responsible for emissions equivalent to 16 coal-fired power plants each year – claims it is 'committed to reducing emissions' and 'mitigating climate change'. Yet shale gas extraction through fracking releases large volumes of the potent greenhouse gas methane and multiple toxic chemicals and pollutants into the air and water. Ammonia production's gas demand is expected to triple in the next decades, driven by a booming fertiliser trade currently estimated at about $200bn. The use and production of fertiliser is already a major contributor to climate breakdown, creating more emissions than aviation and shipping combined. Efforts to tackle fertiliser emissions in Europe appear to have stalled since an ambitious reductions pledge was announced in 2021. 'European countries and companies claim to be feeding the world with 'clean' fertilisers and fuelling the future with 'clean' energy,' says Taylor Hodge, an agrochemicals campaigner from the Washington-based group the Center for International Environmental Law. 'In reality, they're offshoring the pollution, costs, and risks to communities in the US Gulf south.' Yara's plant in Freeport is the company's first investment on US soil. The Norwegian chemicals giant – Europe's largest fertiliser producer – said in its joint launch press release with the German multinational BASF that its use of hydrogen byproduct would reduce the environmental impact of 750,000 tonnes of ammonia production a year. Pipeline maps and permit documents show the hydrogen supplying Yara's plant can be traced back to fracked gas stored at Mont Belvieu, a vast salt dome containing dozens of caverns filled with natural gas liquids from several shale gas basins including the Permian. From Mont Belvieu, the fracked gas is piped 90 miles south to Dow's ethylene plant in Freeport, just metres from the ammonia plant, where an intensive steam cracking process produces both ethylene and hydrogen. Yara claims the Freeport plant's use of byproduct hydrogen reduces emissions from chemical production by 25%, but experts say that while such savings are possible, they do not go far enough. 'Just because it's a byproduct doesn't mean it's clean,' says Paul Martin, a chemical engineer with Spitfire Research, a Toronto-based consultancy specialising in industry decarbonisation. While Yara can claim it is using a more 'sustainable' byproduct, Dow's plant has to use more fracked gas to fuel its furnace to replace the lost heat energy it would otherwise have generated from burning its hydrogen in-house. According to Martin, this would amount to about 1.1m kg of natural gas a year being fed to the cracker furnaces to replace the lost heat energy from hydrogen. He therefore says that while the use of byproduct hydrogen is more efficient overall, reducing the amount of fossil fuels required to produce Yara's ammonia, it is 'not true at all' to say the ammonia production is gas-free, since it is also driving up Dow's use of natural gas. Sign up to Down to Earth The planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essential after newsletter promotion Yara's use of fracked gas makes a mockery of Yara's 'green' expansion in Europe and undermines its attempts at 'sustainable' US production, according to Hodge. 'The Freeport facility is making ammonia out of hydrogen derived from fossil gas – plain and simple,' she says. 'The flow of feedstocks from plastic production and other petrochemical operations makes it clear how deeply these dirty industries are intertwined. Yara's claims mislead the public about their climate- and community-harming emissions.' Yara recently closed two of its largest European ammonia plants, in France and Belgium. Despite this, the company maintains that 'a strong European fertiliser industry is crucial not only for ensuring food security in Europe and globally but also for enabling Europe to lead the green transition' and has highlighted recent investments in 'green ammonia' created using renewable energy at plants in Norway and the Netherlands. Yara has communicated little about how its European facilities are using ammonia imported from its US plant, but DeSmog and Data Desk were able to trace ammonia shipped across the Atlantic Ocean from Yara's Freeport facility to a number of key European fertiliser plants. Analysis of customs and shipping data reveals that about a quarter of Yara Freeport ammonia is exported outside of the US, with more than 90% of this shipped to Europe to be made into fertiliser. These fertilisers – used for everything from wheat to potatoes – are shipped onwards to Asian and European markets. In 2023, Ireland received about 14% of all its fertiliser imports from the facilities, while the UK received about 8% and Spain almost 6%. The investigation 'exposes the bitter truth' of the industry, according to Raj Patel, a research professor at the University of Texas in Austin and panel expert at the IPES-Food coalition, who said a focus on green hydrogen fertiliser technology did not address underlying issues around fertiliser use, and called for policies that instead targeted reduction. 'They don't touch the root problem – the overuse, pollution and potent greenhouse gas emissions happening on farms,' he said. 'We're applying 21st-century technology to preserve 20th-century farming problems.' 'While fertiliser giant Yara markets 'green solutions', it's actually pioneering new frontiers for fracking and fossil fuels. Our food system is becoming Big Oil's emergency escape hatch.' A Yara spokesperson said: 'Yara is a leader in the transition to lower-carbon fertilisers and low-emission ammonia. Profitable decarbonisation is a top strategic priority, and since 2005, we have reduced our greenhouse gas emissions by about 45%. Ammonia produced at Yara's Freeport plant has always relied on hydrogen derived from natural gas, supplied by third parties. Still, the configuration of the plant makes it both one of the lowest emitters of pollutants and one of the lowest carbon intensity plants in the US.' BASF and Dow did not respond to requests for comment. This article was supported by a grant from
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
EU ready to tax Russian fertilisers as early as July
EU lawmakers are set to greenlight tariffs on fertiliser imports from Russia on Thursday, despite European farmers' fears the move risks sending global prices soaring. Over a quarter of the 27-nation bloc's imports of nitrogen-based fertilisers come from Russia, with more entering from Moscow ally Belarus -- which the European Commission now seeks to bring to an end. Seeking to allay farmers' worries, Brussels says it will impose the duties from July and gradually increase them up to 2028 until they reach a level that would fully cut off the flow. Three years after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the EU must stop fuelling "the Russian war machine" and "limit the dependency of Europe's farmers to Russian fertilisers", said lawmaker Inese Vaidere, spearheading the push in the EU parliament to impose the tariffs. Barring any last-minute drama, the European Parliament is expected to approve the tariffs -- although some right-wing lawmakers had been calling for a one-year suspension. The move is not welcomed by farmers. With rising production costs, pan-European farmers' group Copa-Cogeca explained, using Russian fertilisers was "the most competitive in terms of price, due to well-established logistics" for supplying the EU. Brussels also intends for the levies to prevent the indirect export of Russian gas, which is used to produce fertilisers. The EU also wants to increase the bloc's own fertiliser production, and its moves are welcomed by the fertiliser industry in the bloc. "Time is running out. We've been basically calling for action at the EU level for three years," said Tiffanie Stephani of Norwegian fertiliser manufacturer Yara. But she admitted the farmers' concerns were "more than legitimate". - 'Punishing farmers' - The EU has its work cut out to reassure farmers, who are already angry about administrative burdens, squeezed revenues and what they see as unfair competition from less-regulated overseas rivals. The tariff could be "potentially devastating" for the agriculture sector, warned Copa-Cogeca, adding: "European farmers must not become collateral damage." A farmer in central Belgium, Amaury Poncelet, accused the EU of hurting the sector. After spreading nitrogen fertiliser on his field in Berloz -- which he buys from a dealer in Ghent without knowing where it comes from -- the grain and beet farmer said he "doesn't understand the European Union's idea of punishing its farmers". "We're losing money because of these European decisions that treat us like pawns who don't matter," he said. The EU has suggested that duties on imports from North Africa, Central Asia, the United States, Trinidad and Tobago, and Nigeria could be removed to alleviate pressure on prices, among other mitigating measures, should the duties lead to price shocks. Yara's Stephani pointed to estimates showing that, with tariffs on Russian imports, there would be an increase of fertiliser prices of five to 10 dollars per tonne "because of different logistic costs". Prices vary, but a tonne of nitrogen fertiliser is currently worth around $400. adc/raz/ec/rmb
Int'l Business Times
22-05-2025
- Business
- Int'l Business Times
EU Ready To Tax Russian Fertilisers As Early As July
EU lawmakers are set to greenlight tariffs on fertiliser imports from Russia on Thursday, despite European farmers' fears the move risks sending global prices soaring. Over a quarter of the 27-nation bloc's imports of nitrogen-based fertilisers come from Russia, with more entering from Moscow ally Belarus -- which the European Commission now seeks to bring to an end. Seeking to allay farmers' worries, Brussels says it will impose the duties from July and gradually increase them up to 2028 until they reach a level that would fully cut off the flow. Three years after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the EU must stop fuelling "the Russian war machine" and "limit the dependency of Europe's farmers to Russian fertilisers", said lawmaker Inese Vaidere, spearheading the push in the EU parliament to impose the tariffs. Barring any last-minute drama, the European Parliament is expected to approve the tariffs -- although some right-wing lawmakers had been calling for a one-year suspension. The move is not welcomed by farmers. With rising production costs, pan-European farmers' group Copa-Cogeca explained, using Russian fertilisers was "the most competitive in terms of price, due to well-established logistics" for supplying the EU. Brussels also intends for the levies to prevent the indirect export of Russian gas, which is used to produce fertilisers. The EU also wants to increase the bloc's own fertiliser production, and its moves are welcomed by the fertiliser industry in the bloc. "Time is running out. We've been basically calling for action at the EU level for three years," said Tiffanie Stephani of Norwegian fertiliser manufacturer Yara. But she admitted the farmers' concerns were "more than legitimate". The EU has its work cut out to reassure farmers, who are already angry about administrative burdens, squeezed revenues and what they see as unfair competition from less-regulated overseas rivals. The tariff could be "potentially devastating" for the agriculture sector, warned Copa-Cogeca, adding: "European farmers must not become collateral damage." A farmer in central Belgium, Amaury Poncelet, accused the EU of hurting the sector. After spreading nitrogen fertiliser on his field in Berloz -- which he buys from a dealer in Ghent without knowing where it comes from -- the grain and beet farmer said he "doesn't understand the European Union's idea of punishing its farmers". "We're losing money because of these European decisions that treat us like pawns who don't matter," he said. The EU has suggested that duties on imports from North Africa, Central Asia, the United States, Trinidad and Tobago, and Nigeria could be removed to alleviate pressure on prices, among other mitigating measures, should the duties lead to price shocks. Yara's Stephani pointed to estimates showing that, with tariffs on Russian imports, there would be an increase of fertiliser prices of five to 10 dollars per tonne "because of different logistic costs". Prices vary, but a tonne of nitrogen fertiliser is currently worth around $400.
France 24
22-05-2025
- Business
- France 24
EU ready to tax Russian fertilisers as early as July
Over a quarter of the 27-nation bloc's imports of nitrogen-based fertilisers come from Russia, with more entering from Moscow ally Belarus -- which the European Commission now seeks to bring to an end. Seeking to allay farmers' worries, Brussels says it will impose the duties from July and gradually increase them up to 2028 until they reach a level that would fully cut off the flow. Three years after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the EU must stop fuelling "the Russian war machine" and "limit the dependency of Europe's farmers to Russian fertilisers", said lawmaker Inese Vaidere, spearheading the push in the EU parliament to impose the tariffs. Barring any last-minute drama, the European Parliament is expected to approve the tariffs -- although some right-wing lawmakers had been calling for a one-year suspension. The move is not welcomed by farmers. With rising production costs, pan-European farmers' group Copa-Cogeca explained, using Russian fertilisers was "the most competitive in terms of price, due to well-established logistics" for supplying the EU. Brussels also intends for the levies to prevent the indirect export of Russian gas, which is used to produce fertilisers. The EU also wants to increase the bloc's own fertiliser production, and its moves are welcomed by the fertiliser industry in the bloc. "Time is running out. We've been basically calling for action at the EU level for three years," said Tiffanie Stephani of Norwegian fertiliser manufacturer Yara. But she admitted the farmers' concerns were "more than legitimate". 'Punishing farmers' The EU has its work cut out to reassure farmers, who are already angry about administrative burdens, squeezed revenues and what they see as unfair competition from less-regulated overseas rivals. The tariff could be "potentially devastating" for the agriculture sector, warned Copa-Cogeca, adding: "European farmers must not become collateral damage." A farmer in central Belgium, Amaury Poncelet, accused the EU of hurting the sector. After spreading nitrogen fertiliser on his field in Berloz -- which he buys from a dealer in Ghent without knowing where it comes from -- the grain and beet farmer said he "doesn't understand the European Union's idea of punishing its farmers". "We're losing money because of these European decisions that treat us like pawns who don't matter," he said. The EU has suggested that duties on imports from North Africa, Central Asia, the United States, Trinidad and Tobago, and Nigeria could be removed to alleviate pressure on prices, among other mitigating measures, should the duties lead to price shocks. Yara's Stephani pointed to estimates showing that, with tariffs on Russian imports, there would be an increase of fertiliser prices of five to 10 dollars per tonne "because of different logistic costs".
