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Saturday, February 5, 2022

Natural Gas need for food production, without it, 2-3 billion people would starve.

 “I want to say this loud and clear right now, that we risk a very low crop in the next harvest. I’m afraid we’re going to have a food crisis,” said Svein Tore Holsether, the CEO and president of Oslo-based company Yara International.

Holsether added that a food crisis is impending because the cost to manufacture a ton of ammonia has risen nearly 10 times. The natural-gas standard, on the other hand, hit an all-time high in September with the price more than tripling from June to October in Europe.

Yara is a main producer of ammonia, a key ingredient used in synthetic fertilizer, which boosts crop yields. The process of creating ammonia relies on either hydropower or natural gas.

“The price to produce a ton of ammonia last summer was $110. And now it’s $1,000. So it’s just incredible,” said Holsether.

Natural gas accounts for 72-85 percent of the ammonia production cost,.

Ammonia production has become one of the most important industries in the world. Without the crop yield made possible by ammonia-based fertilizers and chemicals, the global population would be at least two to three billion less than it is today (3). Ammonia production has increased steadily since 1946 (Figure 2), and it is estimated that the annual production of ammonia is worth more than $100 billion, with some plants producing more than 3,000 m.t./day of NH3

 “Ammonia Production from Natural Gas – Cost Analysis,” a report published by Intratec. It can be found at: www.intratec.us/analysis/ammonia-production-cost. Ammonia (NH3) is among the most important industrial chemicals, produced by reacting nitrogen and hydrogen in a 1:3 stoichiometric ratio. This world-class commodity chemical is used in a myriad of applications, from fertilizers to wood pulping and drugs.