Neurizer Urea Project
Feeding The World Responsibly
The traditional needs to transform, and at NeuRizer we’re leading the way.
Agriculture is vital to our future. By the year 2050, around the world, there will be more than 10 billion mouths to feed. A thriving agriculture industry will be crucial to feeding our hungry world.
But this need for food will also place incredible strain on humanity’s life support systems…in truth, it already is. We can’t continue to do things the way they always have been. We must find new ways to produce our food and sustain life.
At NeuRizer, we’re leading the world in the development of responsible inputs for food production. We aim to be Australia’s first to achieve carbon neutral production of urea fertiliser – the building block of crop production around the world.
And unlike the majority of urea fertiliser currently used in Australia, ours is made right here in our backyard, meaning we’re also slashing the carbon footprint linked to transport.
We’re working towards cleaning up one of the world’s most carbon hungry industries, while strengthening the country’s supply of critical agricultural nutrients.
Climate change, drought, severe weather and disease… the outlook for the coming century is bleak. Business needs to change. Growth shouldn’t cost the earth and the futures of generations to come.
NeuRizer (NRZ) is the company responsible for progressing the NeuRizer Urea Project (NRUP). NRUP is a nationally significant project that, when developed, will deliver low-cost, high-quality nitrogen-based fertiliser ensuring a secure supply for local and export agriculture markets. Located in South Australia, 550 kilometres north of Adelaide, it is intended that the NRUP will initially produce 1Mtpa of urea fertiliser with potential to increase to 2Mtpa.
NRZ is a certified carbon neutral organisation having been awarded Climate Active certification in March 2022 and is a signatory to the United Nations Global Compact. The NRUP is carbon neutral by design, and the decarbonisation pathway for the NRUP is embedded in the Front-End Engineering and Design (FEED) process seeking to ensure that the NRUP achieves net zero carbon operations from first operations anticipated to occur in 2025.
The NRUP will significantly increase Australia’s sovereign manufacturing capability for fertiliser, supporting Australian agricultural food production. The NRUP will strengthen supply chain resilience that will benefit Australian farmers and, to a lesser extent, the industrial sector where urea is used as a supply input (eg. diesel additive (AdBlue), industrial resins, etc.) by reducing the nation’s reliance on imports.
The NRUP will be one of the biggest infrastructure projects of its type in Australia, providing long term economic development and employment opportunities (2,000+ construction jobs plus 2,450+ ongoing positions) for the communities of the Upper Spencer Gulf region, northern Flinders Ranges and South Australia.
The NRUP is planned to be the only fully integrated urea production facility in Australia, with all inputs (gas, power and CO2) for production, meaning NRZ will control both supply and price of these major cost inputs, regardless of prevailing market conditions and supply chain dynamics.
About the NeuRizer Urea Project
Modelling for the NeuRizer Urea Project.
Benefits of the project
The NRUP will be a major project for South Australia that has the potential to deliver significant and long-term benefits.
It is important for NeuRizer to provide a positive legacy once the project is complete for future generations to benefit from. This will be embedded into all aspects of the business model and is a key measure to the success of the company.
Our vision for this includes: –
Positive Economic and Social Benefits through:
- Contributing to the state government GSP;
- Direct benefits to the Copley and Leigh Creek townships resulting from supply of fuel, food, accommodation and other services;
- Spending money in the state of South Australia through our employees, contractors and service providers;
- Preference to using South Australian companies where possible to deliver the project;
- Development of new business opportunities;
- Short and long-term employment opportunities for the local community;
- Upskilling of local community and indigenous groups with long term employment;
- Highly skilled and educated workforce;
- Provide research and development in the areas of sustainable and responsible practices through academic studies;
- Industry and innovation development.
We will operate responsibly wherever we work and commit to engaging with our stakeholders to manage the social, economic and environmental impacts of our activities.
Fertiliser – Why do we need it?
Every time a crop or animal product is exported from a farm, nutrients, notably nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and sulphur have been removed from the farm and its soils.
To sustain current and future productivity, the nutrients need to be replaced by applying fertilisers. The most common fertilisers are nitrogen based with granular urea being the most common nitrogen-based fertiliser used in our agricultural systems.
In the last 50 years global crop production has expanded threefold. Without fertilisers to increase farm productivity to feed the world, vast areas of additional land would have needed to be converted from natural eco systems, like rain forests, into agricultural production.
As populations continue to grow, and with higher yields of food per hectare of land required, more nutrients must be replaced to maintain sustainable land use.