- Within the context of the Green Energy Transition Scheme of the European Bank for Reconstitution and Development (EBRD), aiming to promote investments that are in a direction of green energy transition and low carbon economies, Environics, in association with LDK Consultants (Greece), was commissioned to perform initial reviews of the following proposed investments:
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- Abu Qir Fertilizers Company (AFC), one of the largest Nitrogen fertilizers companies in Egypt and in the Middle East, located on the coast of Abu Qir Bay, east of Alexandria, comprising three industrial plants.
- An overview of production & energy consumption was provided for AFC Complex (3 production plants):
- Abuqir I: an ammonia production line and a urea production line.
- Abuqir II: consisting of a similar ammonia production line UHDE/Thyssen-Krupp, a nitric acid plant and an ammonium nitrate plant.
- Abuqir III: consisting of an ammonia line and a urea line with the same licensors.
- The review focused on the proposal to expand the urea plant in AFC III plant and use the CO2 that is currently discharged to the atmosphere and excess ammonia to produce granular urea.
- A key element of the assignment was the assessment of the impact of the investment on CO2 emissions. In that context, Carbon intensity benchmarking of the respective facilities was performed based on Taxonomy technical criteria, as per recent benchmark published within Commission Delegated Regulation (C(2021) 2800 final) of June 2021 [4], and more specifically on the basis of the Substantial Contribution and Do No Significant with numerical values of thresholds.
- In the framework of the analysis of carbon intensity only AFC III and AFC II plants have been examined, due to the fact that following the implementation of the proposed investment there will be an exchange of products among them and CO2 emissions will be altered in both plants. On the contrary AFC I is a separate sub-system with discrete electricity and thermal energy consumption and GHG emissions will not be affected by the proposed investment.
- Concerning evolution of specific CO2 emissions in relation to the Taxonomy technical screening criteria, an analysis was performed involving normalization of emissions for the substantial contribution values and assumption of a projected trajectory of specific emissions until 2050.
- Special activities entailed:
- Collecting and reviewing background information from plant.
- Conducting an energy audit at Abuqir facilities.
- Verifying and critically assessing the proposed investments
- Assessing measures on energy and water efficiency
- Quantifying energy savings, primary energy savings and Co2 emission reductions
- Providing cost benefit analysis of the proposed measures.
- The study report encompassed: Description of AFC and its facilities, including installations and processes, production, raw materials and products, as well as utilities, in addition to: Description of an investment plan; Resource Assessment; Critical Review; Proposals for improvement, and Conclusions and Recommendations.
