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Research article2015Peer reviewed

Nitrogen fertilizers manufactured using wind power: greenhouse gas and energy balance of community-scale ammonia production

Tallaksen, Joel; Bauer, Fredric; Hulteberg, Christian; Ahlgren, Serina; Reese, Michael

Abstract

The paper presents a cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment of production of ammonia using wind power. The ammonia is intended to substitute for nitrogen fertilizer produced from fossil resources. The studied system is designed to supply a rural community with fertilizer based on renewable energy and is, therefore, smaller than industrial fossil ammonia production systems. Two contrasting cases examine the impact of the location of the system, investigating the dependence on the regional energy system (background system) to balance demand and supply of energy in the ammonia production system (foreground system). The results show that wind-based ammonia production can significantly decrease fossil energy inputs and greenhouse gas emissions compared to conventional production, but that the use of energy from the background system severely impacts the environmental performance, especially in regions where fossil fuels dominate the energy system. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords

Life cycle assessment; GHG; Renewable energy; Wind; Fertilizer; Ammonia

Published in

Journal of Cleaner Production
2015, Volume: 107, pages: 626-635 Publisher: ELSEVIER SCI LTD

    Sustainable Development Goals

    SDG7 Affordable and clean energy
    SDG12 Responsible consumption and production

    UKÄ Subject classification

    Chemical Process Engineering
    Energy Systems
    Environmental Sciences

    Publication identifier

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.05.130

    Permanent link to this page (URI)

    https://res.slu.se/id/publ/73767