MINERAL NITROGEN FERTILIZERS: ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF PRODUCTION AND USE - Fertilizers: Components, Uses in Agriculture and Environmental Impacts - page 10

A typical heavy-oil-based process uses 1.3 times as much energy as a gas-based process.
A coal-based process uses 1.7 times more energy than a gas-based process.
In China and India, the energy demand per ton ammonia produced is very high: 48.8
GJ/ton NH 3 for China and 43.3 GJ/t NH 3 . China is the largest producer of ammonia with 30%
of global production and India produces another 8% of global production (Table 5) (Kool et
al., 2012).
Figure 3. Block diagram of steam reforming of natural gas (EFMA, 2000a) .
The CO 2 emission on the average for European ammonia production is 1.82 ton CO 2 eq/t
NH 3 (Kongshaug, 1998). From a worldwide survey, Williams and Al-Ansari (2007)
calculated a global average emission of 2.07 ton CO 2 eq/t NH 3 . Haas & Van Dijk refer to a
CO 2 emission from European ammonia production of 1.95 ton CO 2 -eq./ton NH 3 (Table 6).
The IFA report on Energy Efficiency and CO 2 Emissions in ammonia production (IFA,
2009), stated that some 36% of the CO 2 produced in 2008 was recovered. About one-third of
the CO 2 generated globally was captured for production of urea (CO(NH 2 ) 2 ). The remaining
CO 2 captured by the fertilizer industry (2.2%) was sold into other value chains, e.g., to the oil
and gas industry or to the beverage industry.