Study On The Development Characteristics And Sustainability Of Chemical Fertilizer Industry In China

Chemical fertilizer is an important material to support grain production. However, the sustainability of China’s fertilizer industry is poor due to the higher resource consumption and higher environmental costs during the process of fertilizer production and consumption. This thesis analyzes the China’s industrial development characteristics of the nitrogen, phosphorus and potash fertilizer since1949by using data from National Bureau of Statistics, fertilizer industry association, and literature. Meanwhile, this thesis presents the direction and measures of sustainable development of China’s fertilizer industry based on scenario analysis. Finally, this thesis gives development proposals of different fertilizer products. The principal conclusions as follows:(1) The total production of nitrogen fertilizer (N nutrient) in China increased from6000tons in1949to52.98MT in2013, which not only achieved the self-sufficiency, but also became the largest exporter of nitrogen fertilizers in the world. Meanwhile, with the scale of production expanded, the large equipment increased significantly. Furthermore, the industrial layout transferred to producing areas of energy resources, and urea became the most important product. The consumption of N-fertilizers has been grown from0.53MT to41.1MT over the period between1961and2012. In recent years, the most of N-fertilizers were consumed by industrial sectors instead of agricultural sectors, and the total consumption of N-fertilizer by agricultural sectors remained constant at33MT.(2)The Energy consumption by per unit ammonia production decreased from2714kg tce/t NH3in1981tol561kg tce/t NH3in2012, and GHG emission decreased from6.3t CO2-eq/1NH3to3.7t CO2-eq/t NH3thanks to adoption of advanced technologies in China; Meanwhile, the energy consumption and N loss in the process of production and application of N-fertilizers increased due to the increase in the proportion of urea production, but the GHG emission dcreased. Meanwhile, the total energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions and total reactive nitrogen losses of nitrogen fertilizer in the process of production and consumption increased significantly due to the increased nitrogen fertilizer production and consumption. However, total energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions and total reactive nitrogen losses can be decreased by40.9%,29.8%and63.4%respectively if some measures would be implemented, such as the improving technical level, optimizing product structure, prohibiting the export of nitrogen fertilizer, and optimizing nitrogen fertilizer consumption in agriculture.(3) The production of phosphate fertilizers increased from122,000tonnes in1961to16.53MT P2O5in2012, which not only achieved self-sufficiency, but also became the main exporter in the world. Phosphate fertilizer producers are mainly concentrated in provinces where are rich in phosphate rocks, the scale of production has been expanded, the degree of production concentration increased, and the high-concentration phosphate fertilizers became the main product. Moreover, the consumption of phosphate fertilizers increased from122,000tonnes P2O5in1961to11.76MT P2O5in2012. Currently, the consumption is stabilizing at11MT. (4) Due to the rapid increase of phosphate production and the low level of recovery in process of phosphate rock’s mining and processing, the production of phosphate rock increased from130000tonnes P2O5to31.96MT P2O5. In future, the Phosphorus demand will increase from31.96MT P2O5in2010to35.56MT P2O5, and will decrease to24.62MT P205in2100because of population increase, the social and economic development and change in dietary structure. Furthermore, the current reserves of phosphate rock will be depleted in2118according to the demand in2100. However, the phosphate rock reserves will last to year of2593, if certain measures can be adopted in the process of mining, processing, application of phosphate rock, and enhanced the utilization and recovery of phosphorus from the wastewater(5) Potash production increased from36,000tonnes K2O in1990to4.72MT K2O in2013. Meanwhile, with the increase of the production, the structure of products became variety. Potash production mainly concentrated in producing areas of potassium resource, like Qinghai and Xinxiang province. Due to the shortage of resources, potash production still cannot meet domestic demand,50%of the total consumption need to be imported from other countries at present. In recent years, the consumption of K fertilizers is stabilizing at6MT K2O.(6) The problems, such as the overcapacity of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers, simplified product structure, and great impacts on resource consumption and ecological environment. Therefore, improving the industrial production and agricultural efficiency is still the main target for sustainable development of fertilizer industry. Specific measures like digesting excess capacity in industrial chain, improving the resource efficiency by shifting fertilizer producers to the origin of resources and using advanced equipment; Meanwhile, improving the fertilizer utilization efficiency by optimizing the product structure, developing the products according the soil quality, and supporting the scientific method of fertilizer application. Moreover, because of the scarcity of resources, the production of potash fertilizer should maintain at current level. At the same time, government should encourage overseas potash project in order to break the international monopoly and utilization of the plentiful insoluble potassium resource.