YaraLiva Reduces Carbon Footprint for Farmers

A carbon footprint is the amount of greenhouse gas produced during our daily activities. The footprint is most often measured in tons of CO₂ released into the air, but other gases such as nitrous oxide and methane are even more powerful greenhouse gases. Many corporations and agricultural companies have recently made ambitious plans to significantly reduce their carbon footprint, as well as to help farmers meet sustainability targets. The carbon footprint of agricultural operations can be reduced by altering simple activities or by making significant management changes.

The Yara Solution

Manufacturing nitrate-based fertilizer using traditional technology generates a large carbon footprint by releasing nitrous oxide gas. From an environmental perspective, nitrous oxide must be controlled since one pound of emission is equivalent to releasing 298 pounds of CO₂. Yara engineers developed a “green solution” to produce nitrate fertilizer manufacture [using a catalyst] that converts nitrous oxide back to harmless atmospheric nitrogen and oxygen gas. Reducing nitrous oxide emissions significantly reduces the carbon footprint of Yara nitrate-based fertilizer products and is highly beneficial in meeting environmental stewardship goals.

Looking specifically at calcium nitrate fertilizer, the modern Yara production methods produce four pounds of CO₂ (equivalent) per pound of nitrogen. Calcium nitrate made using the older production methods still in use around the world release up to 15 pounds of CO₂ per pound of N from the fertilizer.

YaraLiva Calcium Nitrate Carbon Footprint compared to other fertilizer manufacturers¹

*Transportation carbon footprint is not reflected in this graph, however, even with the transportation/delivery carbon footprint added to Yara Calcium Nitrate products (YaraLiva Tropicote, CAN 17 or CN 9), total carbon footprints of each individual source is less than half the production-only carbon footprint of other North America and Russia products and less than a third of that from China.

¹ Bentrup, F. et al., 2018; Updated carbon footprint values for mineral fertilizer from different world regions. LCA Food 2018 and LCA AgriFood Asia, Bangkok, Thailand.