EnviNOx®: when agriculture becomes even greener
When it comes to climate protection, we have set ourselves a very clear goal: we want to become climate-neutral by 2050 - and reduce our emissions by 30 percent by 2030. We also want to support our customers in becoming greener. This also applies to agriculture, where the production of fertilizers generates large quantities of N2O. In fact, the greenhouse gas with the harmless name "nitrous oxide" is around 300 times more harmful to the climate than CO2. With our EnviNOx® process, we dissolve nitrous oxide into thin air.
Laughing gas is produced particularly frequently in agriculture – 60 percent of anthropogenic emissions originate here. Laughing gas is also produced in large quantities during the production of nitric acid, which is an important raw material for fertilizer production. Around 500,000 tons of laughing gas are produced here every year. It’s a disaster for our environment. But the good news is that thanks to EnviNOx®, N2O can be broken down relatively easily into its harmless components nitrogen and oxygen. thyssenkrupp has already demonstrated this on World Environment Day 2018. What has happened since then?
A year in the life of EnviNOx®
Meinhard Schwefer is Principal Chemist at thyssenkrupp. He is one of the masterminds behind the process and looks back on a very successful year for EnviNOx® . "In January of this year, an EnviNOx® plant went into operation in Belarus. It removes around 700,000 tons of CO2 equivalents per year and also completely reduces all remaining NOx nitrogen oxides," reports Schwefer. In addition, thyssenkrupp has sold three more EnviNOx® plants in South Africa, Egypt and Poland since the last World Environment Day. At the Polish site in Włocławek alone, the environmental technology will remove almost 3,000 tons of N2O annually. This corresponds to more than 700,000 tons of CO2 equivalents - a great success for the team behind EnviNOx® and for the environment.
As Principal Chemist at thyssenkrupp, Meinhard Schwefer has been involved in the EnviNOx project from the very beginning. Together with his team, he convinced many new customers of the environmental technology in 2018 and 2019 - and the climate thanks him.
Greater environmental awareness in society and politics
Schwefer has observed a heightened awareness of environmental and climate issues around the world. In addition, the price of CO2 certificates has almost doubled since the last World Environment Day in Europe - companies that emit the greenhouse gas must purchase such certificates from the European Union. In this way, politicians want to encourage industry to keep its emissions as low as possible.
So EnviNOx® is becoming more and more attractive to companies and plant operators. The team wants to open up even more areas of application through further research. "Specifically, we are currently working on a project in Central Europe that could eliminate almost one million CO2 equivalents per year."
EnviNOx®: A success story
There is a long story behind the development of the process. When Meinhard Schwefer and his team began developing the process in 2000, few people were interested in the greenhouse gas N2O. The chemists and engineers at thyssenkrupp tested in the laboratory and in real exhaust gas under which conditions nitrous oxide could best be broken down with the help of catalysts.
This development took several years. "You can only be successful if you go deep and have staying power," says Schwefer. thyssenkrupp then sold the first plant in 2006. In 2008, the EU even declared the process "Best Available Technique" and recommended it to operators of nitric acid plants. Around 15 percent of nitric acid plants worldwide are now equipped with thyssenkrupp's solution. EnviNOx® eliminates almost 15 million tons of CO2 equivalents every year.
Nitrous oxide sounds anything but dangerous, but it is much more harmful to the climate than CO2. With EnviNOx, thyssenkrupp has therefore developed a process to remove it almost completely from exhaust gases from industrial plants.
At a glance: How EnviNOx®
"The exhaust gas is simply passed over a special catalytic converter, which helps to break down the N2O into its components," explains Meinhard Schwefer. This is made possible by so-called zeolite catalysts, which are activated in a special way with iron ions. "This means that the nitrous oxide can also be largely broken down under industrial conditions," says Schwefer.
In addition, EnviNOx® also removes the toxic NOx nitrogen oxides contained in the exhaust gas - completely! When a reducing agent such as ammonia is added to the process, the catalysts convert the NOx into water and nitrogen. Anyone wishing to use EnviNOx® does not have to build a new production plant: Waste gas purification, for example, can easily be integrated at the end of the nitric acid production process. A relatively small step for the plant operator, but a big one for climate protection.
About thyssenkrupp's climate strategy
Sustainability plays a special role for us at thyssenkrupp. In particular, we have received several awards in recent years for our contribution to climate protection. It is therefore only logical that we have set ourselves a particularly ambitious goal for the future: climate-neutral by 2050. You can find out how we intend to achieve this here.