Energy efficiency and energy saving by Indian fertilizer plants: Role of feedstock and ownership

Abstract

Fertilizer is one of the energy intensive core industries of India. Among the different types of fertilizers produced in India, nitrogenous fertilizers like urea are most energy consuming. Out of natural gas, naphtha, mixed feedstock, or FO/LSHS used as feedstock for production, natural gas is the cleanest feedstock. This paper calculates energy efficiency scores for 26 urea plants for a sample period of 2007–2018. These are plants that were selected for implementation of PAT-I because their energy consumption was higher than a given threshold. The scores are compared on the basis of feedstock used and the ownership of the plants. Finally, energy saving potential is estimated. Results show that efficiency scores are the highest for private owned natural gas based plants and the lowest for government owned non natural gas based plants. The gap between actual energy consumption and target consumption based on the BCC scores is the highest for government owned plants using FO/LSHS feedstock. Future policies should focus on these plants so that they can get closer to the efficiency frontier.