Implementation of LCA in Ammonia Production
Implementation of Life Cycle Assessment for One of The Largest Ammonia Producer
About
ESSA is one of the largest producers of ammonia in Indonesia, which places Indonesia as the world’s leading ammonia producer. As the first in the world to utilize the latest technology in ammonia production which is called “ KBR Reforming Exchanger System and Purifier Technology”, ESSA put more concerned with global sustainability. As it continues to move forward, ESSA is aiming to sustain its operations both economically and environmentally. ESSA has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Japan Oil, Gas, and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC), Mitsubishi Corporation (MC), and Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB) to develop low-carbon ammonia production in Indonesia, also referred to as “blue ammonia”, through its subsidiary PT Panca Amara Utama (PAU).
“The pioneers of ESSA Group have invested in “Blue Ammonia” which is environmental friendly ammonia and is in line with Indonesia’s unconditional target of reducing carbon emissions by 29% and conditional target of up to 41% by 2030”
Chander Vinod Laroya, President Director & CEO ESSA
Challenge
Through its vision to become the first blue ammonia producer and help achieve Indonesia’s government target to reduce 29% of CO2 emissions by 2030, PAU is looking for ways to get a better understanding of its current environmental performance. They would like to validate the environmental impact caused by its ammonia product, while at the same time helping identify the opportunity to reduce the environmental impact through its environmental improvement program.
Solution
To get a better understanding of the current environmental performance of their ammonia product system, we conducted a life cycle assessment of ammonia products in accordance with Product Category Rules (PCR) for basic chemicals (2021:03) from the International EPD system. The ammonia product system model was built using OpenLCA to help assess the environmental impact. The model covers all related life cycle phases in ammonia production, which started from the upstream processes, which included all related production processes for material and energy used in the core process. Core processes included the transportation of material and energy to the plant, the main production process for syngas and ammonia, utility processes such as power plants, and downstream processes that included the distribution of ammonia products to customers.
Benefit
With this LCA model, PAU successfully obtained the baseline for its environmental performance and created a potential opportunity for its environmental improvement program, including carbon capture and storage to produce low-carbon ammonia. From our LCA study, it was found that implementing carbon capture and storage technology could potentially reduce their global warming potential by 49.9%.