The largest global producer of renewable energy from sugarcane, Raízen has signed a contract with the fertilizer producer Yara. Chemically equal to natural gas, biomethane – made from waste from ethanol production – will be used by Yara to make “green” ammonia and produce nitrogen fertilizers, serving as an alternative for marine fuel. It is the first bilateral methane contract carried out within the Novo Mercado de Gas, as well as the first commercial contract for biomethane for industrial use in Brazil. The five-year, 20,000 m³/d (706,000 cf/d) deal is starting in 2023. Yara, the world’s second-largest ammonia producer, with 7.7 million tons manufactured globally in 2020, is already testing other decarbonization ways in four of its 17 ammonia plants worldwide, but the option so far is electrolysis (using energy from renewable sources). While evaluating electrolysis projects in Brazil, Yara is optimistic about biomethane, whose production potential in São Paulo would be able to supply the entire demand of its plant in Cubatão.
Sources: Ideaonline/Global Fert (*Translated by Ia Niani)