Nutrien Redwater certified as one of first in Verified Ammonia Carbon Intensity program

Nutrien’s Redwater facility was recently announced as one of a handful of North American ammonia manufacturing sites certified through a first-of-its-kind third party Verified Ammonia Carbon Intensity (VACI) program.

In December, The Fertilizer Institute (TFI) introduced the VACI program, which offers voluntary certification for the carbon footprint of ammonia production at specific facilities. This groundbreaking program is the first of its kind and aims to provide ammonia consumers with an independent and certifiable carbon intensity score to help them reduce emissions throughout their supply chain.

The VACI certification framework establishes a standardized method for calculating the carbon intensity of ammonia, covering all stages of ammonia manufacturing, from feedstock production to the final product at the plant gate. Producers use the VACI standard to determine the carbon intensity of ammonia produced at their facilities and then an independent third-party auditor verifies the carbon intensity score. It also gives the industry a common language to move away from the traditional colors associated with the different production methods of ammonia (gray, blue, green, etc.) for which carbon intensity scores may vary from facility to facility even with the same production method.

The VACI program was finalized in parallel with Redwater’s certification requiring plenty of collaboration between Nutrien, VACI and the independent auditor, but the effort was worth it.

“Thanks to the collaboration of site leadership and subject matter experts, we successfully completed the intensity calculations, documented the process, and engaged auditors for the certification and verification process,” says Adetutu Ajayi, Senior Manager, Product Life Cycle Assessment. “Completing the certification alongside the program finalization also gave us the opportunity to provide feedback and input into how some aspects of the VACI methodology, certification process and documentation could be improved in the future.”

The VACI program was developed over three years and led by TFI in collaboration with several member companies and guided by a third-party consultant with lifecycle analysis expertise.

“The goal was to provide ammonia producers with a consistent, credible calculation methodology aligned with ISO standards to calculate the well-to-gate carbon intensity of ammonia,” says Kelly Skuba, Sr. Engineer, N&P Opex, who was part of TFI’s technical working group with Rose Turner and Blake Adair to develop the certification program. “The certification enables customers to confidently utilize this data to assess and integrate the reduced carbon intensity of products in their supply chain when evaluating their own carbon footprint.”

“An important part of GHG emissions intensity reduction is verifying and understanding the impact,” says Tim Faveri, VP, Global Sustainability. “Programs like TFI’s VACI standardize the emissions intensity calculation across the fertilizer industry. Congratulations to the team for their work on this program.”

About Nutrien Redwater

Redwater, Alberta is located 52 km north of Edmonton. There are currently more than 400 employees working at the facility, and the site has the capacity to produce 950,000 (gross) tonnes of ammonia and other nitrogen-based fertilizers including solid urea, UAN, ammonium nitrate and ammonium sulfate.

Our nitrogen operations at Redwater continues to export carbon dioxide (CO2) into the Alberta Carbon Trunk Line (ACTL) for permanent sequestration. In 2023, the site completed a CO2 system expansion project to boost CO2 sequestration by an additional 40 percent with the ability to export more than 800 tonnes per day into the ACTL.