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Nitrogen solutions are used almost exclusively as nitrogen fertilizer materials. There is little or no industrial market. Nitrogen solution fertilizer use is largely confined to countries that have highly developed agricultural economies and very little consumption occurs in the developing regions of the world. Although nitrogen solutions account for only about 7% of the world nitrogen fertilizer market, they account for 35–40% of the market in the United States and 10–15% in Western Europe. Urea-ammonium nitrate (UAN) solutions, containing 28–32% nitrogen, account for the bulk of the solutions market.
Nitrogen solutions are water solutions of selected nitrogen chemicals that are blended, rather than being the products of chemical reaction. Although they are used almost totally as fertilizers, some water-based ammonium nitrate slurries are used in certain commercial blasting markets. Nitrogen solutions tend to be somewhat more expensive per unit of nitrogen than other forms of nitrogen fertilizer, but they have the advantage that they can be applied via irrigation at the exact time during the growing cycle that the application will have maximum impact. They can also incorporate pesticides.
The United States is, by far, the largest consumer of nitrogen solutions, followed by Western Europe. No other region consumes as much as 10% of the world total. The former USSR was the second-largest consumer in the late 1980s and early 1990s but (reported) consumption there became minimal during the mid-1990s and has only partially recovered. The United States and former USSR have accounted for most of the growth since 1994.
The following pie chart shows world consumption of nitrogen solutions:
World apparent consumption of nitrogen solutions has been exhibiting a moderate upward trend that is projected to continue over the longer term. However, because apparent consumption in 2007 was at a cyclical (and historical) high, a short-term downturn is expected in 2008–2009 before upward growth resumes. |
