Yara officially launched large-scale production of AdBlue at its Sluiskil plant in the Netherlands on 31 January. With output of 200,000 tpy, Sluiskil will have the biggest bulk AdBlue output of any plant in the world, the company claims.

Yara markets AdBlue under the Air1® brand, distributed in partnership with Brenntag, and also supplies product to other resellers such as truck OEMs Iveco and Volvo, to whom Air1 is the preferred AdBlue supplier.

"Investments will be made as the market develops"

Prior to its launch of AdBlue production at Sluiskil, Yara supplied its European Air1 operations from its Brunsbüttel plant in Germany. Sluiskil will supply Air1 to the Benelux countries, parts of Germany and France and the nascent UK market. Yara is working on making more capacity available at its other plants in Europe. "Investments" will be made as the market develops," a company spokesperson said.

From Sluiskil, Yara will be able to lift Air1 solution by truck, rail, barge and ship for export, taking advantage of its existing logistics network. As Yara expands its AdBlue production base the company is likely to take advantage of its urea production sites at Ferrara in northern Italy, where it produces 450,000 tpy urea, and Le Havre in France, where it operates 300,000 tpy of prilled urea plant in joint venture with Grande Paroisse.

Yara's urea capacity at Sluiskil is 800,000 tpy, with output directed into fertilizer and non-fertilizer end use. To produce 200,000 tpy AdBlue will require 65,000 tpy urea, which is fed directly into AdBlue production when the urea is still in molten form. The additional investment required to produce AdBlue at an existing urea facility is relatively minor, therefore increasing the number of production sites becomes the more economic alternative to the cost of transporting a heavy commodity largely made up of water.