17 June 2011

Yara, the world's leading manufacturer of fertilizers and crop nutrition knowledge, is helping the arable industry reduce its carbon footprint.

Through ongoing investment in new technology to ensure carbon efficient fertilizer production and transportation, plus research and promotion of best practice on arable farms, Yara is taking significant strides to address climate change.

For Yara, profitability and responsibility are considered converging issues in a long-term perspective of sustainable agriculture, as Mark Tucker, Head of Agronomy explains. “Very few companies are doing in depth R&D in the field of carbon reduction. It is the responsibility of large organisations and businesses such as Yara to set an example for others to follow by investing in, and successfully implementing the best available research, technology and techniques to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“Efficient fertilizer production and transportation has a major role to play in reducing the carbon impact of agriculture, as does adopting best practice on farm through timing and rates of application, machinery use and matching products to crop requirements. A key component of the Yara Carbon Footprint Campaign is to ensure our own house is in order and then, thorough knowledge transfer, advise arable farmers on how they can make a positive impact on the environment. In agriculture it’s particularly vital that all stages of the supply chain are actively employing techniques to reduce the overall carbon footprint of farming.”

How are Yara making a difference?

Yara takes a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) approach to the carbon footprint calculation of fertilizers. Such a methodology considers the production, transportation, farming, harvest, consumption and capture to better understand how to improve the carbon balance (see figure 1 below).

 Figure 1 – Life cycle Analysis diagram

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Yara's plants are rated among the most energy efficient in the world, following a substantial investment to develop and install Nitrous Oxide (N2O) catalytic abatement technology, a BAT (best available technology) process, which reduces N2O emissions by ~90% (see figures 2 and 3 below).

Figure 2 – Table to show CO2 levels per tonne of N produced

Figure 3 – Implementation of BAT to reduce N2O emissions

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Fertilizer use

When soils are enriched with nitrogen, whether via fertilizer or other products such as manures or digestates, N₂O emissions will occur during the processes involved in the Nitrogen Cycle. Therefore using products and tools that can improve the Nitrogen use efficiency will lower the carbon footprint.

“Yara continues to develop tools and advice to enhance N use efficiency, contributing a 10% - 30% reduction of emissions from the use of fertilizers. A good example of this is the Yara N Sensor which has achieved a 7% yield increase with 13% less fertilizer used,” says Mr Tucker. “Yara fertilizer products and crop nutrition programmes help farmers to achieve high yields with minimum environmental impact, reducing their overall carbon footprint associated with the use of fertilizer by ~50%, whilst ensuring their most cost effective use” (see figure 4 below).

“To help improve understanding, Yara have decided to provide data on their own carbon footprint of fertilizer products.” continues Mr Tucker “This will give transparency and ensure that decisions can be made based upon environmental considerations, helping the industry to take responsibility for minimising its climate impact.”

Figure 4 – Bar chart to show potential carbon reduction in fertilizer production and use

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 Yara has invested £20 million directly into R&D programmes, and nearly £100 million on implementing new technology at factory level. Three full time staff work in the R&D research centre in Haninghof, and in 2010 over 50,000 emission measurements from soils were taken, focusing on N₂O.

“By using products from plants working to BAT standards, and by taking Yara's agronomic advice, farmers are able to calculate their impact on the environment whilst using products with a carbon footprint of 50% less than those from factories that do not adopt modern technology. These are significant developments in the reduction of agriculture’s overall carbon footprint. I hope to see more farmers adopt these methods and more major businesses to continue investing further in reducing their carbon footprint” concludes Mr Tucker.