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• Fertilizer sector is very crucial to Indian economy, provides important input to agriculture
sector. It is regulated by government policies administering the price of fertilizer and the
production.
• Natural gas, naphtha, LSLS/fuel oil are used as feedstock for producing urea
• Specific energy consumption of sample plants covered under this study varies between
5.53 Gcal/MT of urea and 10.2 Gcal/MT.
• Over the years, the industry has improved its energy performance by bringing down the
specific energy consumption and improving capacity utilisation.
3. Quantitative details:
Urea plants are very energy intensive and therefore cost of energy is the most critical factor in
cost of production. The cost of energy varies from 65% to 87% of production. Production of
ammonia is the most energy intensive process and accounts for around 80% of total energy
consumption.
The wide range of specific energy consumption per tonne of urea can be explained by factors
related to feedstock / fuel used and vintage of technology. The new generation plants
commissioned recently use state-of-the-art technology and are therefore more energy efficient
compared to the older generation plants. Similarly, type of feedstock / fuel used also has bearing
on the specific energy consumption. For fertilizer manufacturing natural gas is most preferred and
efficient feedstock. This explains the fact that specific energy consumption of all gas based plants
is lower than that of plants based on other heavier feedstock/fuels. The overall trend of specific
energy consumption over the years has been declining. Even the old plants have improved their
specific energy consumption over the years through revamp / retrofits and continuous
investments towards reducing energy consumption.
Reference:
Energy Management Policy – Guidelines for Energy Intensive Industry in India,
Chapter 5, pp 66-95 by Bureau of Energy Efficiency