http://www.fertilizerseurope.com/documents/file/publications/EFMA%20SHE%20report2006

EFMA

SAFETY HEALTH &

ENVIRONMENT REPORT NOVEMBER 2006

NOVEMBER 2006

european fertilizer manufacturers association

Copyright 2006-EFMA EUROPEAN FERTILIZER MANUFACTURERS’ ASSOCIATION AVE. E. VAN NIEUWENHUYSE 4 B-1160 BRUSSELS BELGIUM

EFMA SAFETY HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT REPORT

CONTENTS

Introduction

2

EFMA’s Product Stewardship Programme

4

Safety

5 ●

EFMA’s Safety Survey

6

●

Incident analyses

7

●

EFMA’s Safety Seminar

8

●

EFMA’s Guidance Documents

9

❍

Guidance for UN classification of ammonium nitrate based substances

10

❍

Guidance for the compatibility of fertilizer blending materials

11

Health

12 ●

12

Chemical Policy

Environment

13

●

EFMA’s Energy Survey

15

●

EFMA’s Environmental Survey

18

●

EFMA’s activities in Agriculture

19

●

Producing BioEnergy and making the best of European Land

19

●

Sustaining Fertile Soils and Productive Agriculture

20

●

Integrated Farm Management

21

List of EFMA publications

22

Prepared by EFMA

1

DISCLAIMER: The information and guidance provided in this document is given in good faith. EFMA, its members and staff accept no liability for any loss or damage arising from the use of this guidance.

EFMA SAFETY HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT REPORT

INTRODUCTION

EFMA issued its first Safety, Health and Environment report in October 2005. The report showed the joint EFMA members activities over the period preceding the year 2005. It is intended to continue this initiative by issuing an annual SHE report. This year’s report highlights our activities regarding good practices in our Industry as well as further improvements regarding emission abatement and safety performances.

2

EFMA SAFETY HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT REPORT

Schematic visualisation of the fertilizer value chain

3

EFMA SAFETY HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT REPORT

EFMA’S PRODUCT STEWARDSHIP PROGRAMME

EFMA’s Product Stewardship (PS) programme was officially launched in September 2003. The principle is that the Responsibility for our products goes beyond the fences of our production sites and involves activities in the whole chain. The programme exists as a CD-ROM with guidance on how to implement PS in the company and an audit manual. Auditing is carried out by SGS, an independent third party. All EFMA’s SHE activities form part of this PS concept.

The first full audit took place in 2004-2005 and the results were presented to EFMA’s board of Directors. EFMA member companies have been requested to draw up an improvement plan, which will be audited in the first quarter of 2008. In addition, SGS will support EFMA to develop the existing PS programme into an internationally recognised standard, that has been developed according to the requirements of ISO Guide 65.

This will give the programme further credibility when promoting the standard globally.

4

EFMA’s Product Stewardship Programme for Fertilizers is regularly updated and can be found on EFMA’s website http://www.efma.org

EFMA SAFETY HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT REPORT

SAFETY

The safety of our employees, contractors and consumers receives our utmost attention. EFMA’s activities include : • Safety targets for member companies • Safety benchmarks • Analysis of accidents and incidents • Publication of Guidance Documents • Annual safety seminars

5

EFMA SAFETY HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT REPORT

EFMA’S SAFETY SURVEY

(Note: the high figure in 2001 is the result of the Toulouse explosion but was not related to commercial grade fertilizer material).

(Note: LTIR is defined as the number of Injuries per million worked hours leading to the absence from work for 1 day or more)

Figure: LTIR trends of EFMA’s safety performance (reporting years 1997-2005)and target for 2006.

The Lost Time Injury Rate (LTIR) is a good indicator for safety performance in a company. Since 1997 EFMA has used LTIRs as the safety benchmark for EFMA companies. The graph shows an improving trend over the years. Our target is the continuous and sustained reduction of LTIRs for employees and contractors within the fertilizer industry. The Technology Environment and Safety Committee (TESC) will monitor and report this process. It has agreed on target values for employees and contractors to achieve in 2006. (see figure above).

6

EFMA SAFETY HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT REPORT

INCIDENT ANALYSES All incidents can be prevented. EFMA intends to turn the lessons from past incidents into prevention techniques and best practice standards to avoid suffering to people, environmental pollution, costly damages and production interruptions. With such an objective, members report incidents to EFMA as part of their rapid alert system.

EFMA in turn shares the information with all its members for example in EFMA’s yearly safety seminar.

EFMA’s Incident data base vs. 30-01-2006. Accessible to EFMA members EFMA keeps records of all relevant incidents that have happened in the fertilizer industry – in European countries and elsewhere. This information is stored in EFMA’s incident data base. Experts from EFMA member companies analyse these accidents on a regular basis and make recommendations to prevent these accidents from occurring again. EFMA regularly updates this database which now contains over 640 entries.

Selected topics are part of the annual EFMA Safety Seminar where the members have the opportunity to discuss these accidents and prevention techniques in more detail.

7

EFMA SAFETY HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT REPORT

EFMA’S SAFETY SEMINAR In May 2006 EFMA experts met in Lisbon (Portugal) for the 9th time to exchange information and views on technical, environmental and safety issues. This year’s main theme was Incidents and the lessons to be learned.

The presentations and the discussion have been put together on a CD ROM which is available to EFMA members.

An overview of the past Safety Seminars is given below: 1997:

Learning from incidents.

1998:

Ammonia.

1999:

Nitric Acid.

2000:

Ammonium Nitrate.

2001:

Safety Management Systems.

2003:

Regulatory Issues.

2004:

EU legislation related to the Fertilizer Industry.

2005:

Transport including loading and unloading.

2006:

Incidents and lessons to be learned.

“Maintenance” is suggested as the main topic for next year’s Safety Seminar. It could include: major overhauls, corrosion issues, start-ups and shut-downs, Safety Integrity Level (SIL) classification and use of contractors. The venue for the Safety Seminar will be Ludwigshafen, Germany

Participants at the EFMA Safety Seminar listen carefully to one of the presentations.

8

EFMA SAFETY HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT REPORT

E F M A’ S G U I D A N C E D O C U M E N T S

One of the many joint activities of EFMA’s Technical, Environment and Safety Committee (TESC) is the establishing and issuing of industry guidance documents and easy-to-read leaflets. These documents are considered best practice standards for safe and environmentally correct operations. The documents are made freely available for anyone interested at EFMA’s website http://www.efma.org The following documents were issued in the report period 2005-2006 under the umbrella of the TESC: Guidance for UN classification of ammonium nitrate based substances (May 2006) Guidance for the compatibility of fertilizer blending materials (June 2006)

9

EFMA SAFETY HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT REPORT

Guidance for the UN Classification of Ammonium Nitrate Based Substances

A number of ammonium nitrate based substances are subject to regulations for the transport of dangerous goods.

EFMA prepared this guidance for its members in order to provide a common understanding and a practical approach to the classification in the “Orange Book” relating to AN fertilizers. It is based on the industry’s established practices over many years, its interpretation of the intended controls, its understanding of the potential hazards and knowledge of the wide range of products.

10

EFMA SAFETY HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT REPORT

Guidance for the Compatibility of Fertilizer Blending Materials

Blending of fertilizers allows the design of almost any composition of nutrients from a limited number of components (e.g. ammonium nitrate, urea, ammonium phosphates, rock phosphate, potassium chloride ‌).

However, not all possible blending components are compatible. The mixing of incompatible materials may cause chemical reactions or physical effects (e.g. increased hygroscopicity, moisture migration, stickiness or caking tendencies) which could cause handling problems.

11

EFMA SAFETY HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT REPORT

HEALTH

We accept the responsibility to minimise health risks for our employees and our customers in the production, processing and use of fertilizers. We provide all the necessary information and training for our employees regarding the safety of operations and any health hazards associated with raw materials, chemicals and finished products in the production process. We offer information and training to our customers regarding safe handling and use of fertilizers.

All EFMA members issue safety data sheets. These are based on EFMA’s Guidance for the Compilation of Safety Data Sheets for Fertilizer Materials (1996; under revision).

CHEMICAL POLICY In 2003 EFMA, together with The Fertilizer Institute (TFI, USA), completed a research programme with the purpose of gathering the toxicological data for 23 Fertilizers and their intermediates. Presently EFMA is working to get these fertilizers approved in the voluntary ICCA (International Council of Chemical Associations) High Production Volume testing programme.

In the years 2005-2006 EFMA, together with the Dutch Institute NOTOX, finalised the information which is necessary for the ICCA program and has submitted the information to the Environmental Protection Agency (USA) who will act as sponsor country. It is to be expected that the test data will be reviewed during the OECD meeting in the Spring of next year. This will be part of the necessary compliance with the new EU chemical policy programme REACH. In 2006 EFMA established a special task force to assist EFMA members in preparation for the EU chemical policy programme: REACH. The task force will investigate the possibilities for joint actions regarding product formulations such as NPKs.

12

EFMA SAFETY HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT REPORT

ENVIRONMENT

Taking care of the environment means reducing the emissions associated with the production of fertilizers, using energy and natural resources efficiently and promoting good agricultural practices.

13

EFMA SAFETY HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT REPORT

EFMA’s ENVIRONMENTAL BENCHMARK EFMA has been conducting yearly environmental benchmarks amongst its members for 10 years. Data on the emissions of various compounds to water and air from our production facilities are gathered and displayed graphically. This enables EFMA to monitor the development of emissions from the European fertilizer industry and allows all members to compare their plants with other participants of the survey.

The TESC encourages open discussion among its members in order to improve the environmental performance of European fertilizer production.

Trend analysis shows a decrease of emissions over the years. As examples of this analysis the graphs displaying NOx emissions from ammonia - and nitric acid plants, N2O emissions from nitric acid plants, emissions of Nand P-components to water and ammonia emissions to air from finished fertilizer plants (Urea, AN, CAN, NPK) are presented.

NOx emissions into air from ammonia plants.

The base year is 1996. A reduction of 15% has been achieved.

14

EFMA SAFETY HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT REPORT

NOx emissions into air from nitric acid plants.

The base year is 1996 when we first did our benchmark. An almost 50% reduction has been achieved.

N2O emissions into air from EFMA nitric acid plants.

EFMA started to gather the data in 1999 when N2O emissions became part of the discussion regarding Greenhouse Gases.

15

EFMA SAFETY HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT REPORT

Ammonia emission into air from finished fertilizer plants (Urea, AN,CAN,NPK) We started to gather the emission data from finished fertilizer plants such as Urea, AN, CAN and NPK separately in the year 2000. This graph shows a 22% decrease in ammonia emission achieved in a period of 5 years.

Nitrogen emission into water from finished fertilizer plants (Urea, AN,CAN,NPK)

16

We started to gather the emission data from finished fertilizer plants such as Urea, AN, CAN and NPK separately in the year 2000. This graph shows a 37% decrease in nitrogen emissions into water achieved in a period of 5 years.

EFMA SAFETY HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT REPORT

Phosphorus emission into water from finished fertilizer plants (mainly NPK) This graph shows an overall 54% decrease of P- emissions into water achieved in a period of 10 years. The great variations on a yearly basis may be due to the P-content of the different NPK formulations produced.

17

EFMA SAFETY HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT REPORT

EFMA’S ENERGY BENCHMARK The final report on the Energy Efficiency and CO2 Emissions Benchmark of EFMA Ammonia plants (2004 operating period) became available in December 2005. The results were compared with those of the 2000 survey and it was shown that for the plants which participated in both surveys the average net energy efficiency was improved. This strengthens the leading average position of EFMA producers on a global scale as has been demonstrated by the 2004 Energy Efficiency and CO2 Emissions Benchmark of IFA Ammonia plants (20022003 operating period).

The next global survey will be made in 2008 (operating period 2006-2007).

18

EFMA SAFETY HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT REPORT

EFMA’S ACTIVITIES IN AGRICULTURE EFMA issued two publications in 2006. The first promoted the information that the use of fertilizers in the production process of bio-energy is highly eco-efficient. The second gave our message regarding the importance of good practices for fertilizer production, distribution and usage as part of the industry's product stewardship,

PRODUCING BIO-ENERGY: SAVING FOSSIL RESOURCES AND CONTRIBUTING TO LIMITING GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS

The European Union considers biomass as a major future source for the production of renewable energy. Energy crops can be grown on the 4 mio. ha of set-aside land. Mineral fertilizers are very important for the production of bio-energy, as their use enables farmers to produce high biomass yields. These high yields help meet the ambitious targets for bio-energy set by the EU. Mineral fertilizers help produce 4 to 6 times more energy in the form of biomass compared with that consumed while producing, transporting and applying the fertilizer.

Biomass is almost neutral in terms of Greenhouse Gas emissions when used for energy purposes. If it is used to replace fossil fuels, the reserves of the fossil fuels last longer and “fossil” CO2 emissions are avoided. Using biomass therefore contributes to a net saving of CO2.

19

EFMA SAFETY HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT REPORT

EFMA INVOLVEMENT IN GOOD AGRICULTURAL PRACTICE

EFMA understands and acknowledges the importance of good practices for fertilizer production, distribution and usage as part of the industry’s product stewardship. The above publication presents a clear analysis of good agricultural practices (GAP), which EFMA supports and promotes for the use of its products. The fertilizer industry has, over recent decades, funded a considerable volume of research into efficient and environmentcompatible soil management and crop production. In addition it has developed and introduced many of the tools which assist the farmers to achieve good practice. Good nutrient, soil and environmental practices are a core part of the integrated farm management approach now adopted by leading farmers throughout Europe.

With the same objective of further propagating the principles of Good Agricultural Practice and more precisely Good Fertilization Practice, EFMA organised a conference in November 2006 on Integrated Farm Management, calling all organisations aiming at a more sustainable agriculture to join forces to facilitate the propagation of GAP to farmers.

20

EFMA SAFETY HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT REPORT

21

EFMA SAFETY HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT REPORT

LIST OF EFMA PUBLICATIONS All EFMA publications in the area of :1 Technology; Safety and the Environment 2 Agriculture and Environment in the period 1990-2006 are available from our website http://www.efma.org 1990

Hazardous Properties of Ammonia

1990

Recommendations for Safe Storage and Handling of Wet Process Phosphoric Acid (Phosphoric Acid Produced from Sulphuric Acid)

1992

Selected Tests Concerning the Safety Aspects of Fertilizers

1992

Handbook Safe Storage of Ammonium Nitrate Based fertilizers. (Under revision)

1996

Guidance for the Compilation of Safety Data Sheets for Fertilizer Materials

1998

Guidelines for Transporting Nitric Acid in Tanks

1998

Code of Best Agricultural Practices for Nitrogen

1999

Energy Recovery by Crops in Dependence on the Input of Mineral Fertilizers

2000

Code of Best Agricultural Practices for Urea

2000

Best Available Techniques

Booklet No. 1: Production of Ammonia Booklet No. 2: Production of Nitric Acid Booklet No. 3: Production of Sulphuric Acid in collaboration with ESA Booklet No. 4: Production of Phosphoric Acid Booklet No. 5: Production of Urea and Urea-Ammonium Nitrate Booklet No. 6: Production of Ammonium Nitrate and Calcium Ammonium Nitrate Booklet No. 7: Production of NPK Compound Fertilizers by Nitrophosphate Route Booklet No. 8: Production of NPK Compound Fertilizers by Mixed Acid Route 2000

Understanding Phosphorus and its Use in Agriculture

2001

Sustainable Soil Management: An Achievable Goal

2002

Recommendations for safe and reliable inspection of atmospheric, refrigerated ammonia storage tanks

22

2002

11 Basic Safety Principles (EFMA/IFA)

2002

Harvesting Energy with Fertilizers

2003

Guidance for Safe Handling and Use of Non-conforming Fertilizers and Related Materials. (Producers)

2003

Guidance Relating to Sea Transport of Ammonium Nitrate Based Fertilizers

2003

Leaflet Fertilizers and Fire

2003

Farming for the Future

2003

EFMA’s Position on Green House Gases

2003

The European Fertilizer Manufacturers Association’s position on theEuropean Commission’s proposal for a directive on the EU Emissions Trading: 12 December 2003

2003

Understanding potassium and its use in agriculture

2004

Delivering quality to your food The Benefits of Mineral Fertilizers

EFMA SAFETY HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT REPORT

23

2004

Guidance for Safe Handling and Utilization of Non-conforming Solid Fertilizers and Related Materials for Fertilizer Importers, Distributors and Merchants

2004

Understanding nitrogen and its use agriculture

2005

EFMA's leaflet short version Guidance for Handling Non-conforming Ammonium Nitrate Based Fertilizers in Distribution Chain

2005

Guidance for Ammonia Transport by Rail

2005

Guidance For The Storage of Hot Ammonium Nitrate Solutions

2005

EFMA's position paper on N2O Gases.

2005

EFMA's SHE Report October, 2005

2006

Guidance for the Compatibility of Fertilizer Blending Materials

2006

Guidance for the UN Classification of Ammonium Nitrate Based Substances

2006

Sustainable Fertile Soils and Productive Agriculture

2006

Producing BioEnergy and making the best of European Land

EFMA SAFETY HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT REPORT

24

Avenue E. van Nieuwenhuyse, 4 B-1160 Brussels Belgium Tel: +32 2 675 35 50 Fax: +32 2 675 39 61 E-mail: main@efma.be For more information about EFMA visit the web-site www.efma.org

european fertilizer manufacturers association