Performance comparison of urea production using one set of integrated indicators considering energy use, economic cost and emissions’ impacts: A case from China

Yuhong Chen, Yanfeng Lyu, Xiangdong Yang, Xiaohong Zhang, Hengyu Pan, Jun Wu, Yongjia Lei, Yanzong Zhang, Guiyin Wang, Min Xu and Hongbin Luo

Energy, 2022, vol. 254, issue PC

Abstract: Sustainability of urea production should concentrate on its economic, energy and environmental performances, but few studies are found to address the three aspects simultaneously. Here a set of indicator system, composed of energy use, economic cost, and emissions' impacts in terms of emergy and carbon emission intensity, were built to investigate this issue. Next six scenarios of Chinese urea production, attained through combination of two ammonia synthesis methods and three urea production methods, were evaluated. The study results show that (1) urea production from natural gas (UPNG) should pay more attention to indirect energy use of raw materials and energy sources while urea production from coal (UPC) should more emphasize energy efficiency of production processes, (2) dust emissions should be emphasized for carbon dioxide stripping technology and ammonia stripping technology, while more attention should be paid to NH3–N discharge from urea production using aqueous solution full-cycle technology, (3) UPNG are worse than UPC according to energy consumption intensity and economic cost but better than the latter in terms of emissions’ impacts, and (4) generally combination of coal based ammonia synthesis and ammonia stripping method is the best one.

Keywords: Urea production; China; Energy consumption; Economic cost; Emissions' impacts (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:254:y:2022:i:pc:s0360544222013925

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2022.124489

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