In an era of empty promises and missed climate targets, OCP Group is well on its way to achieving its 2028 goal of using only sustainable water sources.
Rabat – After years of commitment and heavy investments, OCP Group is on track to reach its 2028 goal of using only “non-conventional” water sources, meaning the company will not use a drop of Morocco’s stressed water resources.
For years, OCP Group has been revising its production processes and investing in advanced technology with the goal of using only sustainable water sources by 2028 and no fresh water by 2030.
As Morocco’s largest company, OCP Group is deeply involved in the country’s ongoing water crisis. Globally, the phosphate fertilizer industry consumes millions of liters of fresh water in its mining, transport, and production processes, something OCP realized is simply unsustainable.
With Morocco enduring half a decade of various forms of drought, the fertilizer giant is keenly aware that the company cannot operate like its competitors but instead must make a genuine and costly commitment to reducing its water use and finding new sustainable water sources within Morocco’s arid ecosystem.
To achieve its ambitious goals, the company has worked closely with Mohammed VI Polytechnic University to deploy the latest advanced technology to find a solution that allows it to produce its much-needed fertilizers with minimal impact on Morocco and the continent.
The company began investing heavily in desalination, a method of converting seawater into fresh water, and has since desalinated 25 million cubic meters of water for industrial use. This means that since setting its ambitious goals, the company has created 25 billion liters of water through desalination, enough to fill 10,000 Olympic swimming pools.
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One of the difficulties of desalination, however, is its high energy consumption, which led OCP Group to invest in green energy to meet its growing energy needs. This commitment has resulted in the company now covering 86% of its energy needs with green energy, which is expected to rise to 100% by 2030. This means that OCP Group now produces 25% of Morocco’s entire clean energy mix, with 400 GWh produced annually, enough to power all of OCP’s mining sites.
OCP Group currently uses recycled water for 80% of its phosphate enrichment process and has quickly built extensive facilities to supply its operation with sustainable water. One example is the company’s Khouribga facility, which recycles 5 million cubic meters of wastewater from Moroccan cities annually.
Another OCP facility is the Jorf Lasfar desalination plant, which desalinate 40 million cubic meters of seawater annually, while the company’s slurry pipeline water use, which transports mined phosphates, has been reduced by 3 million cubic meters of water.
As OCP Group continues to grow and expand, with the lofty goal of providing the African continent with the fertilizers it urgently needs, the fertilizer giant’s sustainability goals continue to grow and evolve to ensure it can operate in a way that not only satisfies shareholders. The company also strives to ensure a sustainable future for all its stakeholders, from local communities to the millions of people who rely on OCP’s products.
Morocco World News
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