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Brunsbüttel is located in Germany, on the west coast of Schleswig-Holstein at the point where the Kiel Canal and the River Elbe meet the North Sea. This offers direct access to both the North Sea and the Baltic Sea.
The site has two production units, an ammonia plant and a urea plant. An air separation unit in the ammonia synthesis plant delivers the air gases nitrogen, oxygen and argon used for various technical and industrial purposes. The ammonia plant is unlike Yara’s other ammonia units because it is designed to use heavy fuel oil residues as feedstock instead of natural gas. A special unit recovers elementary sulfur and vanadium from the ashes of heavy fuel oil combustion. These products are used as raw material for production of sulfuric acid or in the steel industry (chromium/vanadium steels e.g. for tools or machines). Several grades of ammonia and urea are produced with specifications tailored to meet market needs. Technical aqueous solutions like AdBlue/Air 1 and Reductan for reduction of NOx from trucks and power plants is delivered to the international market.
The Brunsbüttel site has been certified according to the international quality standard ISO 9001 since 1993. Certification to the international environmental standard ISO 14001 was added in 2008.
Key dates
1975 Decision to build plant by VEBA
1978 Start-up of ammonia plant
1979 Start-up of urea plant
1985 Taken over by Norsk Hydro
2004 Becomes part of independent company Yara International ASA after Yara’s operations are spun off from Norsk Hydro
Production volumes:
Ammonia 700,000 tons Urea 500,000 tons Air1/Reductan 150,000 tons
Health, Safety and Environment fact sheet 2009
Health, Safety and Environment fact sheet 2008
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