Urea production: An absolute environmental sustainability assessment.

The demand for urea, as the most popular global nitrogen fertilizer, is on the rise and as such, its performance in an environmentally sustainable perspective relative to planetary boundaries is high on the agenda. The increasing interest in nitrogen fertilizers is to improve agricultural methods for a better production rate, but can it become environmentally sustainable? Which is due to the significant contribution of fertilizers in the anthropogenic impacts of industrial activities on nature, should be considered. Here, a system analysis based on real data using life cycle assessment linked to the planetary boundaries framework (PB-LCIA) was conducted to study the performance of total urea consumption in Iran, 1.