Carbon Footprint Analysis on Phosphoric Acid Production Using Wet Process at PT Petrokimia Gresik

Abstract

Phosphoric acid is one of the main commodities in the fertilizer industry, which is very important in agricultural countries such as Indonesia. One of the biggest players in Indonesia’s fertilizer industry is PT Petrokimia Gresik, which owns a phosphoric acid plant that produces 200,000 MT/year phosphoric acid using the hemi-dihydrate process. Phosphoric acid production can be energy intensive and involve a lot of material transport, which usually corresponds with a high carbon footprint. To date, there is no literature regarding carbon footprint of Indonesia’s phosphoric acid. Thus, a carbon footprint analysis was done on phosphoric acid production at PT Petrokimia Gresik based on the inventory from their material and energy balance data. The electricity emission factor was calculated from their coal unit power plant, while the emission factor for raw materials was estimated from literature. The carbon footprint is 1378.25 kg CO2/ton P2O5. The largest carbon footprint contribution comes from sulphuric acid (43.81%), followed by material transport (36.78%). The sensitivity analysis shows that the carbon footprint was very sensitive to sulphuric acid and sea transport emission factor.