Fertiberia, the largest Spanish manufacturer of fertilizers and other products, is preparing an ambitious million-dollar investment in its Trasona (Corvera) factory, which will involve the transformation and modernization of its manufacturing complex and will double its current production capacity, which will go from the current 465,000 tons to a range between 950,000 and one million.
The action will entail the almost total rethinking and reconfiguration of its manufacturing facilities, in the vicinity of Avilés, which will become self-sufficient in energy and will eliminate CO2 emissions by the end of 2025 or the beginning of 2026, the dates on which it is expected to be completed. the works.
Investments and new plants.
In addition to the announced construction of a green ammonia plant, linked to the hydrogen supplies provided by the HyDeal Spain consortium (in which Fertiberia joined as one of its promoters), the Corverana factory is going to build a new acid plant nitric to replace the current one, which is 50 years old.
The new facility to produce nitric acid, which will feed on the green ammonia that will be manufactured in the complex itself, will be free of greenhouse gas emissions, will double its current installed capacity and will generate enough energy from the heat of reaction to supply all the the factory, which will become energy self-sufficient.
To take advantage of the expansion of nitric acid production capacity, Fertiberia will also expand its transformation lines.
The plant currently has two liquor production lines: one for ammonium nitrate and the other for ammonium nitrosulfate. In October, it will inaugurate a second ammonium-nitrosulfate line. It will thus go on to operate with three lines. One of them, the current ammonium nitrate, is going to be replaced in the new investment project by a much larger one. With this, the factory will start operating in the liquor production phase with a new ammonium nitrate line (which is expected to be ready in 2025) and two ammonium nitrosulfate lines, dating from 2010 and 2022.
In the last phase of fertilizer production (granulated) a new larger line will be added to the two existing ones, with which the factory will start operating with three granulation lines.
All works will be undertaken without interrupting production activity.
Employment.
With these actions, the factory will create jobs, especially in the new ammonia plant, although figures have not yet been specified. The factory employs 150 people plus another 250 indirectly, in the case of carriers and other professionals. The quantification of the investment will be high but it is pending definition by the engineering reports.
The most transcendental, however, will be the radical change in the factory, which will guarantee its continuity for decades by complying with the highest environmental standards, its energy efficiency and its superior production capacity, in addition to the possibility of producing the so-called «intelligent» with the incorporation of inhibitors that will favor the slow transformation of the fertilizers by the bacteria present in the soil and the mobilization of all the existing micronutrients near the root of the plant.
green ammonia.
The installation of green ammonia that will be incorporated into the complex will mean that the Asturian plant will begin its manufacturing process in the previous step to the production phases that it currently develops. With this, Fertiberia will recover the production of its own raw material in Asturias for the first time since the closure in 1987 of the plant that obtained ammonia in Valliniello from gas from the batteries of the steel industry. It will also assume that the complex will be self-sufficient in this input. It currently receives it from the Fertiberia factory in Palos de Moguer (Huelva) and from other suppliers from various countries, in the case of Algeria.
Ammonia is obtained by the Haber-Bosch procedure by reacting hydrogen with nitrogen obtained from air. The hydrogen that Trasona now receives is gray, obtained from natural gas. The one that will be used from 2026 is green: HyDeal will generate it from water through electrolysis with the help of renewable energies.
The green ammonia produced in Trasona will supply the needs of the factory and could be used in other uses, such as supplying it as fuel to ships adapted for its consumption, in which multinationals such as Man are already working.
Fertiberia.
Fertiberia, owned by the investment fund Triton Partners since 2019, produces some 500 products for the countryside in Spain in 14 manufacturing centers. The most relevant are those of Sagunto, Puertollano, Palos de Moguer and Trasona.
At Trasona, a dozen nitrogenous fertilizers are made with different concentrations of different micronutrients that are incorporated in the granulation process. The Asturian plant is specialized in fertilizers for generic crops that occupy large areas of land.