As the basis of the modern nitrogen fertilizer industry, industrial ammonia reduces atmospheric nitrogen to usable forms with 98% efficiency through the Haber-Bosch process with only 0.97 tons of nitrogen per ton of synthetic ammonia, which is 4,900 times more efficient than 0.02 to 0.2kg/ ha/year of biological nitrogen fixation. 82% of 215 million tonnes of nitrogen fertilizer produced in the world in 2023 will directly come through conversion of industrial ammonia, of which 56% will be urea and 23% ammonium nitrate. Data of Chinese fertilizer industry showed that industrial ammonia accounted for 62% of the production cost of each ton of urea, and the energy consumption efficiency of natural gas ammonia was 72%, 19 percentage points higher than that of the coal head process. Carbon emission intensity was reduced from 4.2 tons of CO2/ ton to 1.8 tons.
Agricultural yield is decided by nitrogen transport efficiency. With nitrogen from industrial ammonia ammonia, rice yields were increased from 3.5 to 7.8 tons per hectare. Nitrogen use was 45 to 60 percent, compared to 15 to 30 percent for conventional organic fertilizers. The FAO reports that 51 percent of the world’s food production is dependent on synthetic nitrogen fertilizer. If industrial ammonia is completely eliminated, the yield of corn per unit area will be reduced by 63 percent and wheat yield will be reduced by 58 percent. Outcome of a 2023 trial in India showed that precision controlled release urea (polymer coated with industrial ammonia) reduced nitrogen loss from 40% to 12% and increased rice yield by 19%.
Its scale economy is unmatched, the newly built ammonia single line production capacity of 3300 tons/day, the unit investment cost of 450−600/ ton, 78120/ ton lower than in the 1960s, and the Chinese coal head process cost of 280−320/ ton, the price difference drives the world fertilizer trade volume of 89 million tons in 2023. The European industrialammonia price surged to 1,250 tonnes (3.7 times normal level) during the Russia-Ukraine conflict, causing the global fertilizer price index to rise by 62%, confirming its leading position in the supply chain.
Environmental performance innovation continued, and BASF’s blue ammonia technology combined with carbon capture (CCUS efficiency 90%) reduced life cycle carbon emissions to 0.4 tons of CO2/ ton, a 78% reduction compared to conventional processes. Norway’s Yara Green ammonia project uses hydropower to produce hydrogen, reducing the energy consumption per ton of ammonia production from 33GJ to 28GJ, and will raise the proportion of the world’s planned production capacity in 2025 by 4.7%. China’s Ningdong base solar-powered ammonia test plant has increased the clean energy utilization rate to 93%, and the unit price is $85/ ton lower than the coal pathway, but the current capacity only accounts for 0.3% of the country.
Irreplaceability is due to the technical characteristics, the industrial ammonia nitrogen content is 82.2% (mass fraction), storage and transport energy density 48 times higher than compressed nitrogen. Liquid ammonia (-33℃) transport loss rate is only 0.02%/ day, while ammonium nitrate solution (concentration 28%) transport cost 32% higher. In the production of phosphate fertilizer, the industrial ammonia conversion rate to produce ammonium phosphate was 94%, and 0.28 tons of ammonia were used in consuming each ton of DAP fertilizer, while the phosphorus use efficiency of alternative products such as nitrate phosphate fertilizer was 19% less.
Safety and innovation go together, and new ammonia plants use ruthenium based catalysts (KBR KAAP technology) to reduce the reaction pressures from 200-300 bar to 80-100 bar, with a reduction of 15% in energy consumption. The digital control system reduced the accidental stop rate of the device from 8 times/year in the 1970s to 0.3 times/year, and DuPont achieved an industry record of 850 consecutive days in 2023. As for leakage prevention and control, the sensitivity of the infrared ammonia detector can be as high as 0.1ppm, and by virtue of the intelligent interlocking system, the likelihood of large leakage accidents is reduced to 0.00017 times/device · year.
The second pathway has economic hurdles, and the electricity cost of electrolytic water to synthesize ammonia needs to be <20/MWh to be able to compete with traditional processes, while the average cost of renewable energy is now 45-80/MWh. Field trials of bio-nitrogen fixing engineering bacteria showed that the nitrogen fixing ability of soybean rhizobia was only 0.18kg/ ha/day and that 157 ha was required to balance the nitrogen supply of 1 ton of industrial ammonia. The application cost of gas fertilizer (CO2+NH3) project in facility agriculture is as high as $4.2/m³, 23 times that for field fertilization, which limits its widespread use.
Global distribution ensures food security. 83 percent of the world’s industrial ammonia production capacity is distributed across natural gas resource areas. The United States, Russia, and China account for 62 percent of global production. During the 2023 Red Sea shipping crisis, the 2 mtpa Saudi port of Jazan ammonia export plant tied up 32% of Africa’s fertilizer supply and shipped ammonia’s energy density (12.7MJ/L) was 1.8 times higher than liquefied hydrogen, making it a strategic reserve candidate. It is estimated by the World Bank that the world’s fertilizer demand will grow by 23% by 2050, and the irreplacibility of industrial ammonia will remain a driving force in the development of agricultural civilization.