OREANDA-NEWS.  On December 25, comprehensive tests were carried out at Acron facilities for a new product – a mixture of urea and ammonium-nitrate solutions (UAN), Acron's press service reports. Liquid mineral fertilizer production is part of Acron’s Investment Programme. Construction of this 500,000 tpa capacity facility cost over $25 million.

The new unit is environmentally friendly, with a low level of harmful emissions and no solid waste. Moreover, UAN production requires no additional raw materials, as it is manufactured by processing ammonium nitrate and urea. As a result, it has a higher added value.

A 10,000 tonne container was installed to store UAN and 100 tank cars with a capacity of 6,000 tonnes were purchased to transport the fertilizer. The product will be shipped from an elevated pier that can fill 24 tank cars at a time. UAN is a promising product whose export price more than doubled over the previous year – from $150 to $340 per tonne. The mineral fertilizer is exported to Western Europe, the U.S. and Argentina. These regions operate a complete UAN infrastructure, from special port terminals to soil application equipment. In addition, there are no anti-dumping restrictions on UAN imports in the U.S., and the European anti-dumping duty on liquid mineral fertilizers is lower than on other nitrogen fertilizer products.


UAN is a liquid fertilizer produced by mixing water solutions of urea and ammonium nitrate. It has an adjustable 28-32 % content of nitrogen, with nitric nutrients available in three forms – nitric, ammonium and amino nitrogen. UAN solutions contain virtually no free ammonia, which helps prevent ammonia loss resulting from volatility. In addition, UAN requires no expensive pressure-tight or isothermal containers to store and transport it. The new product is also environmentally friendly.