Just over two years ago I reported on the renewable ammonia plant run by Sable Chemical in Kwekwe, Zimbabwe. This 240,000 ton per year facility is one of three surviving hydroelectric powered plants in the world and the only one for which I've been able to get detailed information.
The plant has been troubled by aging equipment, power stability problems, and the overall economic condition of Zimbabwe. I finally got a solid update from last April and news of further troubles dated September of last year, which I'll share here before I publish a report on the plant that integrates the new information.
I first reported on the Sable Chemical ammonia plant in December of 2008. The reports I used for my research were obviously translated to English by someone who was fairly proficient, but not at all technical, so I had a lot of educated guesses in there. The most recent report I've seen, dated April of 2009, greatly clarifies the plant's condition and capacities.
The plant has fourteen electrolyzers and could do at most 240,000 tons of ammonia per year, or 17,000 tons per electrolyzer. Only five of the fourteen are in working order for a maximum production of 85,000 tons per year. Actual production was only 29,000 tons and this was attributed to a fatal transformer explosion taking the plant offline for some months as well as other troubles with the power supply from Kariba dam.
The picture of needs and uses for the ammonium nitrate, a solid form of nitrogen suitable for distribution in small batches to Zimbabwean farmers, is muddled. Based on the numbers I had last year I calculated a 267 pound per acre application, which is nearly double what is used in the U.S. This works out to 300kg per hectare and the most recent report has a much more sensible set of numbers; 40kg to 50kg during happier times, declining to a mere 10kg to 15kg now due to price and shortages.
When unable to produce at home Zimbabwe imports ammonia from South Africa's Sasol. South Africa has little domestic production and imports their ammonia from China. Price spikes in 2008 lead to China slapping a 120% tariff on exports where they'd previously had none. The Sable spokesman indicates they could import 3,000 tons from Sasol using their own tankers but 'changes' in the railway system in the country made this challenging. A 3,000 ton load would be thirty to forty rail cars.
Zimbabwe contracted for the fertilizer needed at the sky high $900/ton mark in 2008. Prices plunged to a third of that but, like American cooperatives, their prices were locked to the contract. Logistics difficulties and low volumes make it impossible for them to blend their inventory cost as U.S. Cooperatives did to bring prices to farmers down.
The United States uses about sixteen million tons of ammonia annually with 90% of that going to agriculture. The entire continent of Africa consumes just a quarter of that amount.
The situation declined markedly in September, when the plant was shut down due to high power tariffs. The plant had been receiving a consistent $0.045/kwh price, consistent with what we'd pay for coal or hydroelectric power in the midwest, but this price rose to $0.056/kwh and the 24% increase made the plant unviable. Besides the impact to the fertilizer industry the shutdown of the electrolysis plant also shut down two metals processing operations in the area which depended on the waste oxygen generated by the facility.
The plant is actually a three phase operation. First ammonia is generated from hydrogen and atmospheric nitrogen, then nitric acid is created, and the acid is mixed with ammonia to create the final solid ammonium nitrate. Here in the United States it is common to see ammonia applied directly, but the chemical is an inhalation hazard and it has to be stored at -33F. The solid ammonium nitrate, typically abbreviated to AN in industry literature, is safe to transport in paper bags.
The plant shutdown was promptly probed by the government, which was deeply concerned about the effect on food supply as well as the issues for the metal refiners caused by the lack of oxygen. This report indicates the second and third phases of the plant are limping along with just 2,500 tons of ammonia monthly, a small fraction of what is needed.
Seeing troubles like this in chaotic Zimbabwe are not surprising, but it's a good glimpse of the future all of us face; load shedding is a spreading problem that one can track via EnergyShortage.org and the tie between energy and food production/distribution is one we don't consider ... until the cupboard is bare.