APPLICATION FORM. for the. The European Responsible Care Award 2008 CEFIC. Technology Manager Fertilizers

Transcription

1 APPLICATION FORM for the The European Responsible Care Award 2008 of CEFIC APPLICANT S PARTICULARS Company Name of the company: DSM Agro PO Box: Postbus 291 Post code and town: Contact person: Post: 6160 MG Geleen, the Netherlands Martin Voorwinden Technology Manager Fertilizers Tel.: (+31) martin.voorwinden@dsm.com PREMISES, COMPANY, LOCATION DSM Agro B.V. has production plants both on the Chemelot site in Geleen and on the Corus site in IJmuiden, the Netherlands. The head office is in Sittard. The company manufactures and sells nitrogen-containing fertilizers, as well as industrial products, such as ammonia and nitric acid. DSM Agro is part of Royal DSM N.V. in Heerlen, the Netherlands. TITLE OF SUBMISSION World record in the reduction of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide in nitric acid plants

2 TITLE OF SUBMISSION World record in the reduction of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide in nitric acid plants DESCRIPTION AND PURPOSE Introduction DSM Agro has four nitric acid plants in operation: two at Geleen (NL), and two at IJmuiden (NL). Nitric acid is made from ammonia and is used as a starting material in the production of nitrogen-based fertilizers, such as calcium ammonium nitrate. Nitrous oxide (laughing gas or N 2 O) is formed in this process as an undesirable by-product. Until recently, it was released into the atmosphere from the chimney stack of the plant with the waste gases. Our four plants make over 1 million tonnes of nitric acid a year, which involves the formation of tonnes of N 2 O. Like carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), N 2 O is a greenhouse gas, but its greenhouse effect is 310 times stronger than that of carbon dioxide. The N 2 O emission in question is therefore equivalent to the emission of almost 2.3 million tonnes of CO 2. We at DSM Agro have been looking for a method to reduce this N 2 O emission for years. For example, we have managed to improve the platinum catalyst in the nitric acid process in order to increase the conversion of ammonia (NH 3 ) into nitric oxide (NO), which cut the formation of N 2 O by about 15-20%. To reduce it further, we needed a method for the catalytic decomposition of N 2 O into harmless nitrogen and oxygen. We conducted experiments over many years, aimed at designing a suitable catalyst for the decomposition of N 2 O in cooperation with various Dutch institutes such as the Energie Centrum Nederland (ECN) and the Universities of Delft, Eindhoven and Utrecht. We installed a relative large pilot-scale reactor in our nitric acid plant in IJmuiden, using ECN s N 2 O catalyst, and conducted test runs with it for over a year, with reasonable success. Unfortunately, these favourable results came too late, because in the meantime new N 2 O- reducing techniques appeared on the market. It is true that the majority of these techniques were also still in the development stage and the results were patchy, but in some cases they gave good results over a fairly long period of time. CO 2 trading At the same time, we had talks with the Dutch Ministry of Environment (VROM) and with Yara, the other manufacturer of fertilizers in the Netherlands, to discuss an opt-in, which would make it possible to include N 2 O in the Emission Trading Scheme (ETS). With this optin in the National Allocation Plan (NAP), it has been possible since January 1, 2008 to include the reduction of the N 2 O emission in the environmental obligations under the Kyoto Protocol for It has been agreed in consultation with the Dutch authorities that instead of taking the historical emission of about 7.5 kg of N 2 O per tonne of nitric acid as the basis of the emission regulations, a benchmark value of 1.8 kg per tonne would be taken for this purpose

3 comparable with the IPPC level for Best Available Technology (BAT). (Remark: In the meantime this benchmark value of 1.8 kg is in March 2008 not accepted by the EUcommission and the Dutch authorities have presented a new proposal with a decreasing value of kg per tonne over the trading period ). This made it clear that we had to be reasonably certain about the technical feasibility in order to avoid buying the rights to a very large amount of emission. Choice of techniques There are basically two techniques for reducing the amount of N 2 O formed in a nitric acid plant, namely: 1) secondary technology, in which an N 2 O-decomposing catalyst is placed in the existing reactor that operates with a platinum catalyst, and 2) tertiary technology, in which a completely new reactor is placed in the path of the waste gases going to the stack. Secondary technology, in which the existing reactor is used, needs less investment, but its results are very unpredictable, not to speak of the other risks and disadvantages involved. Tertiary technology calls for a large investment and a long down time for installation, but promises a substantial cut in the N 2 O emission. It seemed that this would be further helped in particular by the fact that two of our four nitric acid plants operate with a very high waste gas temperature of about 500 C. We had a dilemma on our hands in September 2006, as we had to choose between two solutions. The tertiary technique involved a large investment of more than 10 million Euros, and a complex modification of our existing plants, but promised a chance to recoup some of the cost by emission trading and ensured the best available N 2 O technology in the long run. The secondary solution called for low investment but could not guarantee for certain the required reduction to 1.8 kg of N 2 O per tonne of nitric acid. The choice was particularly difficult, because we did not have a definite National Allocation Plan at the time with an optin for N 2 O, and certainly no approval yet from the European Commission for our opt-in request. We chose the best technique available the tertiary technology from Uhde - for our two largest plants in the belief that the problem of global warming would call for even stricter measures in the future. This technique was less attractive in the case of the other two smaller plants for both technical and economic reasons. Therefore we opted here for a commercially available secondary technology from an independent supplier (Heraeus). To be able to operate the Emission Trading Scheme, all our plants had to meet the demands of the N 2 O Monitoring Protocol as well. For this purpose, we installed a large number of instruments, sensors and analyzers in our process plants and in the stacks, so as to be able to measure the emission accurately, which cost us more than a million Euros. Results All our nitric acid plants were upgraded by installing an N 2 O-reducing technology in the last quarter of 2007, and since January 1, 2008 they are in compliance with all the monitoring requirements of the Emission Trading Scheme.

4 The results are positive and in some cases even exceeded our expectations. Thus, in the two largest plants, the tertiary technique virtually abolished the N 2 O emission, ensuring a 100% cut, as against the expected reduction of somewhere around 96%. At present, after operation for over eight months, there are no signs of slackening in the N 2 O reduction, and we hope that this is will continue in future. This is an absolute world record. No nitric acid plant has ever managed such a reduction in the N 2 O emission anywhere in the world by this technology. We expected a 90% reduction in the other two plants by using the maximum amount of secondary catalyst. In one of them the current figure is around 80%, while in the other one it is considerably less, but we are working on improving it. Savings for the environment In the last quarter of 2007, DSM Agro reduced the N 2 O emission of its nitric acid plants by 6500 tonnes of N 2 O a year in one fell swoop, which is equivalent to 2.0 million tonnes of CO 2 a year, i.e. to the annual CO 2 output of 1 million cars or the CO 2 uptake of 500 million trees, in other words, a forest the size of the Dutch Province of Limburg, thereby doubling the effect of trees in the Netherlands as a whole. Postscript In August 2008 the European Commission still has not reached a decision about the Dutch request for an opt-in. However, the environment cannot wait, so DSM Agro has taken the responsible initiative to develop and implement the right solution. We hope that the politicians will eventually decide to include N 2 O in the emission trading, so that more companies can follow DSM Agro s example and reduce the N 2 O emission by scores of millions of tonnes of CO 2 equivalents all over Europe. At the end of September 2008 the European Commission approved the Dutch request for an opt-in (postscript October 2008) Author s signature: M. Voorwinden Date: August 2008 Attachments: 2 pictures

5 Foto 1: Nitric acid plant #5 in Geleen, with new N2O reactor at left side of building Foto 2: Official opening of N2O project on 31 March 2008 by Dutch minister of Environment Jacqueline Cramer. Left: Renso Zwiers, President DSM-Agro

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