Water management in fertilizer production

Water management in fertilizer production

On the production side, companies are improving operational practices, investing in effluent control, reducing the emissions to air, land and water. Emissions into water vary from one fertilizer production process to another but best practice technologies and good management make it possible to minimize these emissions to acceptable levels.

Plant nutrition improves water efficiency

Proper nutrition predisposes plants to absorb and use water efficiently. And adequate moisture allows plants to take up optimal levels of nutrients. The appropriate use of fertilizers therefore contributes to improved water management.

Excessive nutrients in aquatic ecosystems

When crop nutrients (in particular Nitrogen and Phosphorus) are applied to crops in the form of animal manure or synthetic fertilizers, not all of it is taken up by the plants. The rest may be retained in the soil, or lost to the atmosphere, ground or surface waters. Excessive concentration of nutrients, in addition to poor waste water treatment, contribute in certain marine ecosystems to eutrophication. They can accelerate plant growth leading to algal blooms, oxygen depletion and sometimes fish death. Eutrophication occurs mostly in Semi-Enclosed Marine Systems such as the Baltic Sea or the Gulf of Mexico because of the physical barriers that limit free exchange of seawater between these systems and the open ocean.

To address this important environmental concern, the fertilizer industry is working consistently with  farmers to encourage the adoption of nutrient stewardship.

Fertigation: irrigation for efficient water and fertilizer management

The introduction of well-tested, efficient fertilizer application through irrigation water or “fertigation” techniques could help turn vast areas of arid and semi-arid land in many parts of the world into farmland, as well as preventing water from being wasted in conventional irrigation systems. Through fertigation, the principles of the nutrient stewardship and the 4Rs (right source, at the right rate, right time and right place) can be reinforced in particular for horticultural crops.




During the mining of fertilizer raw materials, air quality can be affected by emissions of dust; exhaust particulates and exhaust gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and sulphur oxides (SOx).
Atmospheric pollutants emitted by the fertilizer industry can include gaseous ammonia (NH3) and ammonium salt aerosols, nitric and nitrous oxides (NO and N2O). Naturally occurring radiation (from phosphogypsum) may also be present.

Technology to reduce emissions

Various abatement technologies exist and are evolving constantly. A recent technological breakthrough makes it possible to destroy virtually all of the N2O from nitric acid production. Rapid uptake of this catalytic technology is fostered by financing mobilized under the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism and Joint Implementati