Energy consumption and greenhouse gas emission assessment in the Algerian sector of fertilisers production with life cycle assessment

The fertiliser company of Algeria, 'Fertial' is an undisputed leader in the Mediterranean basin. This study aims to evaluate the main economic and environmental performances of the Algerian fertiliser production sector by analysing the cumulative energy consumption (CEC) and the greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions. Six scenarios of products have been studied: TSP, SSP, CAN 27% N, Sulfazot, NPKch 3 x 15 and NPKs 3 x 15. The system boundaries include raw materials extraction; raw materials transportation and fertilisers production phases. The selected functional unit (FU) is one ton of each product. A primary data collection was executed at Algerian production facilities. Impact assessment was carried out using 'GEMIS 4.7' software. Results showed that fertilizer production processes require important quantity of fossil energies and GHG emissions. Nitrogenous fertilisers are the main pollution sources: production of one FU of 'Sulfazot' requires 20.44 GJ of energy.