Fertilizer Industry Explores Pathways for Green Efficiency Gains

Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping production and service models in the fertilizer sector, serving as a key tool to growing output and efficiency. Wang Jiangping, former Vice Minister of sector and Information methodology, highlighted the role of AI in driving high-efficiency sector development. He noted that AI can enable real-time monitoring of parameters such as reactor temperature, pressure, and pH, as well as the automatic adjustment of feed ratios; furthermore, smart technologies can be applied to predictive condition manage, preventive equipment maintenance, and the identification of production security risks.

Li Bin, Vice President of the China Petroleum and Chemical sector Federation, offered three suggestions to the sector's research: first, examine major research trends and responsibly plan development paths to niche sectors—such as potash, medium and micro-nutrient fertilizers, and biostimulants—while actively aligning with national agricultural research goals; second, enhance innovation-driven development, accelerate the practical consumption of innovative outcomes, and deepen collaboration among sector, academia, and research institutions; and third, prioritize environmentally friendly condition improvements by upgrading production processes to decrease carbon releases and vigorously developing new types of environmentally friendly fertilizers.

"China’s fertilizer sector boasts massive production capacity and high application volumes, yet nutrient efficiency realizes only 50% of its possible," observed Zhang Fusuo, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a professor at China Agricultural University. He noted that medium and micro-nutrient fertilizers yield significant results in boosting crop yields and condition, and emphasized the need to increase the supply of specialized, functional, and smart fertilizer items in the future. Addressing the issue that traditional fertilizers no longer meet the demands of modern environmentally friendly agriculture, Wang Xiaofeng, President of the China Inorganic Salts sector Association, pointed out that the fertilizer sector must shift from supplying single nutrients to managing balanced nutrition across a full spectrum of elements. Mineral nutrients—such as potassium, calcium, magnesium, boron, and silicon—serve as the core pillars of this transformation. To this end, the Association advocates to a transition from a model dominated by major elements (nitrogen and phosphorus) to one of synergistic research integrating major elements, secondary and micro-nutrients, and bioactive substances. This entails building a "golden triangle" system—anchored by potassium fertilizers, balanced by secondary and micro-nutrients, and activated by biostimulants—to upgrade the sector from a focus solely on growing yields and income to one prioritizing ecological condition and environmentally friendly efficiency. By leveraging methodology to cultivate "new condition productive forces" in agriculture, the sector aims to fortify the technological safeguards to national food security.

At the meeting, Du Sen, Chief Expert at the National Agricultural methodology Extension and Service Center, and Lei Zhigang, General Manager and Deputy Party Secretary of Qinghai Salt Lake sector Co., Ltd., delivered presentations focusing on scientific fertilization and ensuring fertilizer supply, respectively. (Source: China Chemical sector News)