Emission Reduction

Key Facts

47% N20

Fertilisers Efficiency Enhancers can mitigate nitrous oxide emissions by 47%

33% CO2

Savings Potential of 33% reduction of the carbon footprint of current nitrogen fertiliser use

Urease inhibitors (UIs)

In the EU 27+UK, Nitrogen (N) fertilisers such as straight-nitrates (AN+CAN), Urea and N-containing compounds represent approximately 75% of the annual fertilizer consumption.

Readily available Urea it is an attractive fertiliser for farmers due to its high N content, low cost and good water solubility. Nevertheless, ammonia volatilisation potential after field application represents a challenge to the use of urea.

Furthermore, ammonia can be transported over long distances causing eutrophication and acidification in non-agricultural areas, e.g. rain forests. This can be mitigated to a large extent via urease inhibitor usage, as urea treated with UIs can contribute to a 42.5% and 9%[1] reduction of ammonia emissions and nitrous oxide emissions from mineral fertilisers, respectively.

[1] IFA data – average 2015-18 EU 27+UK and EMEP/EEA air pollution emission inventory guidebook 2019

Nitrification inhibitors (NIs)

On the other hand, NIs applied to urea and ammonium containing fertilisers like ammonium nitrate, calcium ammonium nitrate, ammonium sulphate and NPK compounds reduce nitrous oxide emissions and nitrate leaching.

Research shows using UI and NIs with urea and ammonium containing fertilisers can mitigate nitrous oxide emissions by 47%[1], leading to significant carbon abatement of crop production systems.

Taking into account the effect of saving nitrogen losses of about 619 kT nitrogen and average CO2eq emissions of 3.5 t per ton of fertilisers nitrogen produced in Europe the overall potential impact of inhibitor technology on emissions from nitrogen fertilisers sums up to about 32 million tons of CO2 equivalents or about 33% reduction of the carbon footprint of current nitrogen fertiliser use. This is equivalent to removing 8.9 Million cars from the street!

Although Nitrogen is the most important nutrient, being the motor of growth, there are also some undesirable effects associated with its application, such as NH3 emission mainly from Urea containing fertilisers, N2O emission from all N-containing fertilisers and Nitrates Leaching from all N containing fertilisers.

Applying Urease inhibitors has the potential to reduce NH3 emissions by 70%.

Nitrification inhibitors can reduce N2O emissions by 38% as well as nitrates leaching by 18%.

			Pathways of nitrogen losses			Urease inhibitor impact (UI)			Nitrification inhibitor impact (NI)			UI+NI
		Emission			Leaching	Reduction			Reduction
Fertilizer	Annual Consumption*	Ammonia emisison factor**	Ammonia	Nitrous oxide	Nitrate	Ammonia emission	Nitrous oxide emission	Nitrogen consumption	Nitrous oxide emission	Nitrate leaching	Nitrogen consumption	Nitrogen consumption
	kt nitrogen	% N	kt NH3-N	kT N2O-N	kt N	kt NH3-N	kt N2O-N	kt N	kt N2O-N	kT NO3-N	kt N	kt N
				0.01	0.12	40-70%	0.25		0.38	0.18
Ammonium nitrate	2056	1.7	34.952	20.56	246.72				7.8128	44.4096	52.2224	52.2224
Ammonium phosphates	344	6.4	22.016	3.44	41.28				1.3072	7.4304	8.7376	8.7376
Ammonium sulfate	385	11.5	44.275	3.85	46.2				1.463	8.316	9.779	9.779
Calcium ammonium nitrate	2557	1.1	28.127	25.57	306.84				9.7166	55.2312	64.9478	64.9478
NK compounds	53	2.2	1.166	0.53	6.36				0.2014	1.1448	1.3462	1.3462
NP compounds	248	6.6	16.368	2.48	29.76				0.9424	5.3568	6.2992	6.2992
NPK compounds	1214	6.6	80.124	12.14	145.68				4.6132	26.2224	30.8356	30.8356
Nitrogen solutions (UAN)	1534	8.7	133.458	15.34	184.08	53.3832	3.835	57.2182	5.8292	33.1344	38.9636	96.1818
Urea	2590	14.4	372.96	25.9	310.8	261.072	6.475	267.547	9.842	55.944	65.786	333.333
other straight nitrogen	600	1.2	7.2	6	72				2.28	12.96	15.24	15.24
Grand total	11581		740.646	115.81	1389.72	314.4552	10.31	324.7652	44.0078	250.1496	294.1574	618.9226
%			6.3953544598912		12	42.456882235238	8.9025127363786	2.8042932389258	38	2.16	2.54	5.3442932389258
CO2 equivalents (kt)				54182.8666			4823.6366	1519.44646472	20589.489308	1170.34991856		28102.92229128

*IFAdata, average 2015-2018
** EMEP/EEA air pollutant emission inventory guidebook 2019 – technical guidance to prepare national emission inventories