Abstract
The reduced atmospheric sulfur input has led to sulfur deficiency in plants. Sulfur-based compound fertilizers have been widely used in order to provide necessary sulfate. However, their environmental impacts have been less studied. A life cycle assessment approach is applied to evaluate the environmental impact of sulfur-based compound fertilizers from “cradle to grave”, with a typical fertilizer produced in China as a case study and 1 ton fertilizer as a functional unit. The results show the environmental impacts mainly related to human carcinogenic toxicity, fossil resource scarcity, freshwater eutrophication, freshwater ecotoxicity, terrestrial acidification, and marine ecotoxicity. Synthetic ammonia production, conversion, and fertilizer use processes are the key processes, which contribute 26.6, 18.7, and 23.9%, respectively. Electricity, potassium chloride, hard coal, rock phosphate, and emission pollutants from fertilizer use are key factors, contributing 17.6, 16.0, 14.2, 10.0, and 17.1%, respectively. Sensitivity analysis shows that electricity and potassium chloride are the important factors to be optimized in the overall system. These results can be used to optimize the fertilizer industry and frame policies in order to mitigate the overall environmental impacts of sulfur-based compound fertilizer products under a life cycle framework.
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