Bitumen Asphaltive · Middle East Supply Desk
Nitrogen fertiliser · technical grade

Urea: Prilled and Granular Specification, Biuret Limits and Export Supply

Urea is traded as two physically different products under one name. Prilled urea is small and soft; granular urea is larger, harder and blends. This page gives the typical commercial specification with the test method behind every line, explains why biuret decides which grade a buyer can use, and covers caking, technical grade for diesel exhaust fluid, and packing.
≥ 46 %Total nitrogen
≤ 1.0 %Biuret, agricultural
≤ 0.5 %Moisture, Karl Fischer
72.5 %Critical RH at 30 °C
Definition

What urea is, and how the two traded forms are made

Urea is CO(NH2)2, a white crystalline solid carrying 46.65 % nitrogen by mass in the pure compound — the highest nitrogen concentration of any solid nitrogen fertiliser in world trade.

Urea is manufactured from ammonia and carbon dioxide, usually on the back of an ammonia plant that produces both feedstocks. The reaction runs at roughly 130 to 200 bar and 180 to 190 °C in two stages: two moles of ammonia and one of carbon dioxide combine rapidly and exothermically to form ammonium carbamate, and the carbamate then dehydrates more slowly and endothermically into urea and water. Conversion per pass is incomplete, so unconverted carbamate is decomposed, stripped and returned to synthesis. The process names that appear on plant data sheets — carbon dioxide stripping, ammonia stripping — describe how that recycle is handled, and they matter to a buyer only in one respect: how much thermal history the product carries, because thermal history is what creates biuret.

The urea solution leaving synthesis is then concentrated and turned into a solid, and this final step is where the market splits into two products. Prilling requires a very concentrated melt, typically 99.7 to 99.8 % urea, because droplets sprayed from the top of a tower have to solidify by cooling alone during free fall, with no opportunity to dry further. Granulation works from a less concentrated solution, typically 95 to 96 %, sprayed onto recirculating seed particles in a fluid bed or rotating drum, where water evaporates as each successive layer builds. The chemistry in the bag is identical. The particle is not, and almost every commercial argument about urea traces back to that difference.

Key physical constants

  • Molar mass 60.06 g/mol. Nitrogen content of the pure compound is 46.65 % by mass, which is why 46.0 % is the commercial floor and why any offer claiming a nitrogen figure much above 46.4 % should be questioned rather than celebrated.
  • Melting point 132.7 °C. Urea does not simply melt and re-solidify unchanged above this point; it begins to decompose and to condense into biuret, which is why every heated process step is also a quality risk.
  • Solubility in water about 1,080 g/L at 20 °C, rising steeply with temperature. Dissolution is strongly endothermic — about 15 kJ/mol, which on a molar mass of 60.06 g/mol is roughly 250 J/g — so a urea solution chills itself as it forms. Anyone mixing fertigation stock solutions or blending aqueous urea in cold weather has to allow for that temperature drop, because solubility falls with it.
  • Loose bulk density about 0.72 to 0.78 t/m³ determined to ISO 3944, giving a bulk stowage factor near 1.3 to 1.4 m³/t. That makes urea bulky for its weight, and the consequence is routinely stated backwards in offers: a 20-foot general purpose container holds roughly 33 m³ against a payload rating near 28 t, so at 0.72 to 0.78 t/m³ the box fills before it reaches its weight limit. Containerised urea is a volume-limited cargo, not a weight-limited one.
  • Critical relative humidity 72.5 % at 30 °C. Above that ambient humidity urea takes water out of the air. That single number explains most of what goes wrong with urea between the bagging line and the buyer's warehouse.

The grade vocabulary a buyer will meet

Offers use a small set of terms that are not always used consistently. Agricultural or fertiliser grade means biuret at or below about 1.0 % and no particular restriction on the anti-caking treatment. Low biuret or foliar grade means biuret controlled below roughly 0.25 % for spray application. Technical grade means the material has been made and handled to meet a downstream chemical requirement — most commonly diesel exhaust fluid, resin manufacture or melamine feedstock — and normally carries limits on aldehydes, insoluble matter and trace metals that a fertiliser certificate never reports. Feed grade is a separate regulated route for non-protein nitrogen in ruminant rations and should never be assumed from an agricultural certificate. Ask which of these the offer is, in writing, before comparing prices.

The core distinction

Prilled urea versus granular urea

Same molecule, same nitrogen content, two different physical products. The table below sets the two side by side on the properties that actually change what a buyer can do with the cargo.

Typical commercial ranges for prilled and granular urea. Individual plants sit inside these bands at different points.
PropertyPrilled ureaGranular ureaWhy the difference matters
Forming routeMelt at 99.7–99.8 % sprayed from a prilling tower and solidified in free fallSeed particles grown by successive layers from a 95–96 % solution in a fluid bed or drum granulatorLayer growth builds a denser, harder particle; a frozen droplet does not
Typical particle size1.0–2.4 mm, median about 1.5–1.8 mm2.0–4.0 mm, median about 2.4–3.0 mmSize governs blend matching, spread width and dissolution rate
Size Guide Number (SGN)about 150–180about 240–300SGN is the median diameter in mm multiplied by 100; blend components should sit within roughly 10 SGN units of each other
Crushing strengthabout 0.5–1.2 kgf (5–12 N) per particleabout 2.5–4.0 kgf (25–40 N) per granuleDecides how many transfer points the cargo survives before it becomes dust
Dust and attrition in handlingHigher — visible dusting at belt and chute transfersLower — tolerates ship discharge, blending and mechanical spreadingDust is lost tonnage, a bagging nuisance and a caking accelerant
Loose bulk density (ISO 3944)about 0.72–0.75 t/m³about 0.74–0.78 t/m³Affects stowage, bag fill and spreader calibration
Dissolution rate in waterFaster — more surface area per tonneSlower — larger, denser particlesPrilled is the easier feed for fertigation tanks and spray solutions
Suitability for bulk blendingPoor — segregates against granular DAP and MOPGood — size-matched to granular phosphates and potashSegregation delivers off-ratio nutrient at the field, not at the plant
Practical mechanical spread widthAbout 12–18 m before pattern quality degrades24 m and beyond with a matched twin-disc spreaderWide-boom farming cannot use prills without accepting striping
Usual commercial positionDiscount to granularPremium to prilledThe premium is paid for particle integrity, not for nitrogen
Both forms are made to the same nitrogen minimum and both are sold as 46 % urea. A contract that says only urea 46 % has not specified the product. State prilled or granular, state the size fraction you require and state the crushing strength minimum, or the seller is free to ship whichever is cheaper on the day.
Commercial logic

Why granular urea commands a premium

The premium is not a quality claim about nitrogen. It is paid for four specific mechanical properties, and if none of them apply to your operation you are paying for something you will not use.

Bulk blending and segregation

Most compound fertiliser sold in bulk is not chemically compounded at all — it is physically blended from granular urea, granular DAP or MAP, and granular potash. A blend only stays a blend if its components are the same size and density. When they are not, the mixture separates every time it is poured, coned, vibrated in a truck or discharged from a hopper: larger particles roll to the outside of a cone, smaller ones percolate downward through the voids. The farmer then receives a bag whose top half is one nutrient ratio and whose bottom half is another.

The trade manages this with two numbers taken from a sieve analysis. The Size Guide Number is the median particle diameter in millimetres multiplied by 100, so a granular urea with a 2.8 mm median is SGN 280. The Uniformity Index compares the small end of the distribution with the large end and expresses it as a percentage, describing how tight the spread is. Blending practice is to keep components within roughly 10 SGN units and 10 UI points of each other. Granular urea at SGN 240 to 300 sits naturally alongside granular DAP; prilled urea at SGN 150 to 180 does not, and no amount of careful mixing will hold that blend together through a truck journey.

Mechanical spreading

A twin-disc centrifugal spreader throws particles by imparting momentum, and momentum scales with particle mass. A 3 mm granule carries roughly six times the mass of a 1.6 mm prill and a far better mass-to-drag ratio, so it flies further and lands more predictably against wind. Prilled urea can be spread, but the pattern deteriorates as boom width increases, and beyond about 18 m the coefficient of variation across the pass typically rises past the 15 % that agronomic guidance treats as the acceptable ceiling. The visible result is striping in the crop. Operators running 24 to 36 m tramlines specify granular for this reason alone.

Handling degradation

Every transfer point costs particles: bagging line, truck tipping, ship loading, grab discharge, warehouse restacking, blender, spreader hopper. A material at 0.5 to 1.2 kgf crushing strength arrives at the last of those points having generated dust at every one of them. Beyond the lost tonnage, fines are the raw material for caking, because the fine fraction has the highest surface area available to pick up moisture and form solid bridges. Granular urea at 2.5 kgf and above is specified precisely so that the particle that leaves the plant is still a particle when it reaches the field.

Where prilled urea is the better purchase

None of the above matters if the urea is going to be dissolved. For fertigation, for spray solutions, for industrial dissolution and for any chemical use where the solid is a feedstock, small particles dissolve faster and crushing strength is irrelevant. Prilled urea also remains the practical choice for direct hand application, for paddy topdressing, for smallholder distribution in 25 and 50 kg bags, and for markets where the material is applied straight rather than blended. In those cases the granular premium buys nothing, and the sensible specification is prilled with a clear moisture and biuret limit.

Technical data

Typical commercial specification for urea

Every measured line below carries the test method that produces it; the anti-caking line is a producer declaration rather than a test result, and is labelled as such. A specification line without a method is not enforceable, and the properties most often omitted from a weak certificate — biuret, crushing strength and particle size — are exactly the ones that decide whether the cargo is fit for its intended use.

Typical commercial specification for prilled and granular urea. These are indicative trade values, not contractual limits.
PropertyTest methodUnitPrilled, typicalGranular, typical
Total nitrogen, min (dry basis)ISO 5315 / AOAC 955.04 (Kjeldahl, titrimetric after distillation)% by mass46.046.0
Biuret, max (agricultural grade)ISO 2754 (spectrometric, on solid fertilisers containing urea)% by mass1.01.0
Biuret, max (low-biuret / foliar grade)ISO 2754 (spectrometric, on solid fertilisers containing urea)% by mass0.250.25
Moisture (free water), maxISO 760 (Karl Fischer)% by mass0.50.5
Particle size, main fraction, minISO 8397 (test sieving)% by mass90 in 1.0–2.4 mm90 in 2.0–4.0 mm
Crushing strength, minISO 8398 (single-granule compression)kgf per particle (1 kgf = 9.81 N)0.7 (about 7 N)2.5 (about 25 N)
Loose bulk densityISO 3944t/m³0.72–0.750.74–0.78
UFC 85 anti-caking additive, dose rate on finished productProducer declaration on the Certificate of Analysis% by mass of product0.3–0.60.3–0.6
A note on units before the caveats: percentages on this table are percent by mass, and where trace figures appear elsewhere on this page in mg/kg they are the same thing as parts per million by mass — 1 mg/kg equals 1 ppm by mass. The ammonia exposure figures in the safety section are a different basis: those are ppm by volume in air, and they are not interchangeable with mg/kg. These are typical commercial values, not a guarantee. The binding specification for any shipment is the one written into the sales contract and evidenced by the batch Certificate of Analysis. Destination regulation may set its own floor and it can differ from the trade norm: India's Fertiliser Control Order requires total nitrogen min 46.0 % on a dry basis, moisture max 1.0 %, biuret max 1.5 %, and not less than 90 % of the material to pass a 2.8 mm IS sieve while being retained on a 1 mm sieve. Under the former European EC fertiliser rules in Regulation (EC) No 2003/2003, urea was listed at a lower nitrogen floor of 44 % with biuret max 1.2 %; that regulation has been superseded by Regulation (EU) 2019/1009, which sets its own requirements for EU fertilising products and must be read in its current consolidated text rather than assumed to carry the old figures across. Check the destination requirement before agreeing the contract specification, not after the vessel sails.
The line that separates grades

Biuret: what it is, why it is limited, and why it cannot be fixed later

Biuret is the single most consequential number on a urea certificate, and the one most buyers skim past. It decides whether the cargo can be sprayed on a leaf, fed to a resin plant or turned into diesel exhaust fluid.

Biuret is NH2-CO-NH-CO-NH2, formed when two urea molecules condense and release ammonia. The reaction is driven by temperature and by residence time, so it happens in the hot parts of the plant: the final concentration step, the melt lines, the prilling bucket or granulator, and anywhere product sits warm for longer than intended. It is a process-control outcome. Once biuret is in the batch it stays there — there is no downstream treatment, no blending fix and no re-screening that removes it. That is why a biuret figure is a statement about the plant that made the material, not about how carefully it was handled afterwards.

Why it is phytotoxic

Plants take biuret up readily but metabolise it poorly. It accumulates in leaf tissue and interferes with nitrogen assimilation and protein synthesis, producing a characteristic pattern: chlorosis beginning at the leaf tip and margin, progressing to necrosis, most visible on new growth. Citrus and pineapple are the textbook sensitive crops; glasshouse crops, seedlings and anything receiving fertiliser placed close to the germinating seed are also exposed.

The reason the tolerated limit changes with application method is dilution. Urea broadcast onto soil at normal field rates delivers its biuret into a large volume of soil where it is diluted and slowly degraded by soil microbes, and at 1.0 % biuret the dose reaching any single root is small. A foliar spray does the opposite: it deposits the solution directly onto the leaf surface at high local concentration, with no soil buffer at all. That is why foliar and fertigation programmes specify low-biuret material below roughly 0.25 %, and why using standard agricultural urea in a foliar tank is one of the more expensive mistakes available in crop nutrition.

Where the limits sit

  • Agricultural, broadcast use — max 1.0 % is the normal contract figure. India's Fertiliser Control Order allows up to 1.5 %; the former EC fertiliser listing allowed 1.2 %.
  • Foliar spray and fertigation — max 0.25 %, sometimes written as 0.30 %. Material at this level is a distinct product, not a screened-out fraction of the ordinary grade.
  • Technical use for diesel exhaust fluid — tighter again, and for an arithmetic reason worth working through. ISO 22241-1 caps biuret in the finished AUS 32 solution at 0.3 % by mass of the solution. Since the solution is only 32.5 % urea, that limit corresponds to roughly 0.9 % biuret on the urea itself. Agricultural material sitting at its 1.0 % ceiling is therefore already outside specification before a single trace metal has been considered, which is why DEF producers buy technical urea specified at 0.3 % biuret or below and refuse to substitute.

Read the certificate, not the ceiling

A specification says max 1.0 %. A Certificate of Analysis says what the batch actually measured. Those are different documents answering different questions, and for biuret the gap between them is where the risk lives. If a certificate reports exactly 1.00 % on every batch across a year, it is reporting the specification rather than the analysis. Ask for the measured figure with the batch or lot number and the sampling date attached, and for foliar or technical duty, ask whether the plant is configured to run low biuret at all — many are not.

The formaldehyde question

Most urea in world trade is treated with a urea-formaldehyde concentrate, usually UFC 85, dosed into the melt before finishing. It does two jobs: it hardens the prill or granule, and it suppresses caking by interfering with the recrystallisation bridges that lock particles together. For a farmer buying fertiliser this is a benefit and nothing else.

One number here is worth getting straight, because offers confuse it constantly. UFC 85 is typically dosed at 0.3 to 0.6 % by mass of the finished product. That is the additive dose rate, not the formaldehyde content. UFC 85 is itself roughly 60 % formaldehyde with the balance urea and water, so on a mass balance a 0.3 to 0.6 % dose leaves roughly 0.18 to 0.36 % formaldehyde in the product — about 1,800 to 3,600 mg/kg, which is the same quantity expressed as 1,800 to 3,600 ppm by mass — rather than the 3,000 to 6,000 mg/kg the dose rate alone would imply. A certificate that reports a single figure without saying whether it is UFC 85 addition or formaldehyde content has told you very little. Ask which basis the number is on, and if the destination market regulates formaldehyde on import, ask for it on the formaldehyde basis specifically.

It is not universally welcome. Melamine plants, some urea-formaldehyde resin chemistries that need to control their own formaldehyde ratio, diesel exhaust fluid production and certain regulated feed uses all have reasons to want untreated material, and some destination markets scrutinise formaldehyde content on import. A buyer should therefore always ask a plain question: is this material formaldehyde treated, and at what level. Get the answer written onto the Certificate of Analysis rather than accepted verbally. If untreated urea is required, accept in exchange that the cargo is more fragile and far more prone to caking, and tighten the moisture limit, the packaging specification and the storage period accordingly.

Applications

Where urea is used

The great majority of world urea production goes to agriculture, but the technical and industrial outlets set the tightest specifications and are usually where a quality dispute originates.

1

Broadcast nitrogen fertiliser

One tonne of urea carries about 460 kg of nitrogen. Soil urease hydrolyses it to ammonium carbonate within days; surface-applied urea left uncovered on warm moist soil can lose a substantial share of that nitrogen as ammonia gas, which is why incorporation, irrigation-in, or a urease inhibitor such as NBPT is standard practice.

2

Bulk blended NPK

Granular urea only. The component sizes must be matched by Size Guide Number and Uniformity Index or the blend segregates in transit and delivers the wrong nutrient ratio at the field. Prilled urea cannot be used here at any price.

3

Foliar spray and fertigation

Requires low-biuret material below about 0.25 %. Prilled urea is preferred because it dissolves faster, and tank temperature must be watched because dissolution is strongly endothermic and cools the solution as it forms.

4

Diesel exhaust fluid and AdBlue

Technical urea dissolved to a 32.5 % aqueous solution, AUS 32, injected into the exhaust of a diesel engine ahead of a selective catalytic reduction catalyst to convert nitrogen oxides to nitrogen and water. The quality requirements are set by ISO 22241-1.

5

Resins, adhesives and melamine

Urea-formaldehyde and melamine-urea-formaldehyde resins for particleboard, plywood and moulding compounds, and urea as the feedstock for melamine itself. These plants control their own formaldehyde chemistry and normally want untreated urea.

6

Industrial NOx reduction and regulated uses

Urea solution injected into boiler and furnace flue gas for selective non-catalytic reduction, and in marine and stationary SCR systems. Non-protein nitrogen in ruminant feed is a separate regulated route with its own approvals and should never be assumed from a fertiliser certificate.

Technical grade

Technical urea for diesel exhaust fluid: the ISO 22241-1 limits

Diesel exhaust fluid, sold as AdBlue in Europe and DEF in North America, is a 32.5 % aqueous urea solution designated AUS 32. Its composition is defined by ISO 22241-1, the test methods by ISO 22241-2, and handling, transport and storage by ISO 22241-3. A buyer of technical urea is really buying the ability to hit the table below after dilution.

Composition requirements for AUS 32 under ISO 22241-1. The solid urea feed must be clean enough that dilution alone meets every line.
PropertyLimitUnitWhy it is controlled
Urea content31.8–33.2% by massThe 32.5 % nominal concentration gives the lowest freezing point, about −11.5 °C, and the correct reagent dose for the SCR catalyst
Density at 20 °C1.0870–1.0930g/cm³A fast physical check that the concentration is right
Refractive index at 20 °C1.3814–1.3843The field-portable concentration check, done with a handheld refractometer
Alkalinity as NH3, max0.2% by massExcess free ammonia indicates decomposition or contamination
Biuret, max0.3% by massForms deposits in the injector and dosing line and degrades catalyst performance
Aldehydes, max5mg/kgTrace organics carried over from urea production
Insoluble matter, max20mg/kgBlocks the fine injector orifice; the most common cause of a dosing fault
Phosphate as PO4, max0.5mg/kgA direct poison to the SCR catalyst
Calcium, iron, aluminium, magnesium, sodium, potassium — each, max0.5mg/kgDeposit formers and catalyst poisons; also the signature of dirty transfer equipment
Copper, zinc, chromium, nickel — each, max0.2mg/kgCatalyst poisons at very low concentration, picked up from unsuitable metals in contact with the fluid
Two practical consequences follow from this table. First, contamination is added far more often than it is inherited — ISO 22241-3 restricts contact materials to austenitic stainless steel and specific plastics such as polyethylene, polypropylene and PTFE, and rules out carbon steel, galvanised steel, copper alloys, aluminium and solders, because a single wrong fitting can put copper or zinc over the 0.2 mg/kg limit. Second, freezing is not a quality failure: AUS 32 freezes at about −11.5 °C and thaws without any change in concentration, because water and urea freeze together at this composition. Prolonged storage at high ambient temperature, by contrast, does degrade the fluid.
Handling, storage and safety

Caking, moisture and the safety points that are specific to urea

Caking is the dominant quality complaint on a urea shipment and it is almost always a moisture-cycling problem rather than a manufacturing defect. The safety profile is unusual: urea is not a dangerous good, and yet the two situations that hurt people are entirely predictable.

Why urea cakes

Urea is hygroscopic, with a critical relative humidity of 72.5 % at 30 °C. Above that ambient humidity it draws water out of the air; below it, it gives water back. Coastal loading ports, monsoon markets and unventilated warehouses routinely cross that line twice a day. Each time the humidity or temperature rises, a film of moisture dissolves a thin layer at the particle surface. Each time it falls, that saturated film recrystallises — and it does so as solid bridges spanning the contact points between adjacent particles. One cycle produces a soft lump. Twenty cycles under the weight of a stack produce a block that has to be broken with a bar.

Three things make it worse and all three are controllable. Fines, because a high surface area picks up moisture fastest, which is one more reason low crushing strength is expensive. Pressure, because compression forces particle contact points together and multiplies the number of bridges, so the bottom three tiers of a stack always cake first. And product temperature at bagging: urea bagged warm continues to release moisture inside a sealed bag, which then condenses on the inner face of the liner and runs back into the product.

The controls that actually work

  • Moisture at packing held at or below 0.5 % by Karl Fischer, verified on the Certificate of Analysis rather than assumed.
  • Product cooled before bagging, normally below about 40 to 45 °C, so the bag is not sealed around a warm, sweating cargo.
  • Anti-caking treatment, typically UFC 85 dosed into the melt at about 0.3 to 0.6 % by mass of the finished product, with or without an external coating agent. If the buyer has specified formaldehyde-free material, this control is not available and everything else has to be tighter.
  • Intact liner. A 50 kg polypropylene woven bag with an inner polyethylene liner is only a moisture barrier while the liner is unpunctured. Hook damage during loading is a common and avoidable failure.
  • Covered storage on dunnage or pallets, clear of the floor slab and away from walls, with stack heights limited to control compaction, and no restacking of a cargo that has already been through one humid season.
  • Container sweat management. A container loaded warm and shipped across a temperature gradient condenses moisture on the roof, which drips onto the top tier of bags. Kraft paper lining, desiccant bags and avoiding loading in rain are the standard mitigations, and they cost a fraction of one rejected container.

Materials urea must be kept away from

Urea is chemically placid on its own and dangerously cooperative in company. It must never be bulk-blended or stored in intimate contact with ammonium nitrate: the critical relative humidity of the mixture collapses to roughly 18 % at 30 °C, which means it deliquesces at almost any ambient condition on earth, and the combination is also thermally less stable than either component alone. Urea plus single superphosphate liberates water of crystallisation and turns a dry blend into a paste. Calcium nitrate and calcium ammonium nitrate behave similarly. Segregate the bays, label them, and do not let a blending operator improvise.

Separately, urea must be kept away from hypochlorites. Contact between urea and sodium hypochlorite forms nitrogen trichloride, which is explosive. This is not a theoretical laboratory curiosity; it matters wherever a warehouse stores fertiliser and pool or sanitation chemicals in the same building. Strong oxidisers, strong acids and strong bases should also be stored apart.

Safety: the two situations that actually cause harm

Ammonia in enclosed spaces. Urea slowly releases residual free ammonia, and the release accelerates with temperature and moisture. In a sealed shipping container after a long warm voyage, in a ship's cargo hold, or in a silo or bagged-goods warehouse with no ventilation, ammonia accumulates and oxygen can be displaced. Ammonia is detectable by smell well below dangerous levels, but reliance on smell is not a control — olfactory fatigue sets in quickly. For ammonia the ACGIH threshold limit value is 25 ppm by volume as an eight-hour time-weighted average with a 35 ppm short-term exposure limit, and the NIOSH figure for immediately dangerous to life and health is 300 ppm. National limits differ and the destination country's occupational health regulation takes precedence over these reference values. Treat holds, silos and long-sealed containers as confined spaces: open the doors and stand clear, ventilate before entry, gas-test for ammonia and oxygen, and never send one person in alone.

Thermal decomposition and fire. Urea is not flammable and will not sustain combustion, but above its 132.7 °C melting point it decomposes progressively, giving ammonia and biuret and then isocyanic acid, cyanuric acid and related compounds. In a fire involving urea, the atmosphere contains ammonia, oxides of nitrogen and isocyanic acid, all of which are seriously toxic. Firefighting is with water or water spray on the surrounding fire, and responders need self-contained breathing apparatus and full protective clothing rather than a dust mask.

Two further points belong in any site briefing. Runoff and spillage carry high ammoniacal nitrogen and are toxic to fish, so a wet clean-up that reaches a drain or watercourse turns a housekeeping incident into an environmental one — sweep spills up dry and recover them. And urea dust, which is not classed as a combustible dust and is of low acute toxicity, is mechanically irritating to eyes and the respiratory tract; eye protection and a dust mask are appropriate whenever bulk material is being moved, and prolonged skin contact should be avoided because urea is a keratolytic that will dry and irritate skin over a shift.

Transport classification

Solid urea is not classified as a dangerous good for transport and carries no UN number under the IMDG Code. Carried in bulk by sea it falls under the IMSBC Code schedule for urea as a Group C cargo — neither liable to liquefy nor chemically hazardous — which places the emphasis on ventilation, keeping the cargo dry and controlling entry to the hold rather than on segregation from other dangerous goods. The Safety Data Sheet should still travel with the cargo and be read by the receiving warehouse rather than filed unopened.

Logistics

Packing options and container loading

Packing choice on urea is a moisture decision before it is a cost decision. The bag is the only thing standing between a hygroscopic product and a humid destination, and the cheapest packing is routinely the most expensive outcome.

Packing formats with cube-derived loading guides for a 20-foot general purpose container. Exact counts vary with bag dimensions, container type and destination weight limits.
PackingNet weight per unitGuide units per 20' FCLGuide net cargoBest suited to
PP woven bag with inner PE liner50 kgabout 420–460 bagsabout 21–23 MTThe standard agricultural distribution unit; the liner is the moisture control
PP woven bag with inner PE liner25 kgabout 840–920 bagsabout 21–23 MTRetail and smallholder markets; higher packing cost per tonne
Jumbo bag / FIBC, four-loop, lined1,000 kgabout 17–20 bagsabout 17–20 MTMechanised handling with a forklift or crane; fewer lifts, but void space between bags costs cargo
Jumbo bag / FIBC, four-loop, lined1,250 kgabout 14–16 bagsabout 17–20 MTSlightly lower packing cost per tonne where handling equipment allows
Bulk in a lined container1 linerabout 23–25 MTBuyers with tipping or vacuum discharge and covered receiving storage; the best cube utilisation of any format
Bulk vesseln/aParcel size set by the charter, not by the packingTerminals and blenders with silo capacity; stowage factor about 1.3–1.4 m³/t
Work the cube, not the weight, because urea in a container runs out of space before it runs out of payload. A 20-foot general purpose box offers roughly 33 m³ of internal volume against a payload rating near 28 t, and urea at 0.72 to 0.78 t/m³ needs about 1.3 to 1.4 m³ per tonne. Filled perfectly, wall to wall and floor to roof, that box tops out somewhere around 24 to 26 t; once bag geometry and stacking losses are allowed for, the realistic figures are the ones in the table above. The arithmetic takes ten seconds and is worth repeating on any offer you receive: a quotation promising 25 to 27 MT of bagged or jumbo-bagged urea in a 20-foot container is claiming more volume than the container has. The figures above are cube-derived guides rather than contractual quantities, and the destination road weight limit can bind before either the cube or the container rating does, so confirm the load plan with your inland transporter. On the packing specification itself, state the fabric weight, whether the liner is a separate insert or laminated, the closure method and whether UV stabilisation is required — jumbo bags standing in the sun on a quay for a few weeks without UV-stabilised fabric will fail at the loops, and a burst bag on a dockside is both lost cargo and a safety incident.
Buyer questions

Frequently asked questions about urea

What is the difference between prilled and granular urea?

Prilled urea is made by solidifying droplets of a 99.7 to 99.8 % melt in free fall down a tower, giving particles of about 1.0 to 2.4 mm with a crushing strength around 0.5 to 1.2 kgf. Granular urea is built up in layers on seed particles in a granulator, giving 2.0 to 4.0 mm granules with a crushing strength of about 2.5 to 4.0 kgf. The nitrogen content is the same. Granular survives bulk blending, ship handling and wide mechanical spreading; prilled dissolves faster and is cheaper. Specify which one you want, because a contract that says only urea 46 % does not.

What is the minimum nitrogen content of urea?

Pure urea contains 46.65 % nitrogen by mass, so the commercial minimum is 46.0 % on a dry basis, determined by the Kjeldahl method to ISO 5315 or AOAC 955.04. India's Fertiliser Control Order sets the same 46.0 % floor. The former European EC fertiliser listing under Regulation (EC) No 2003/2003 used a lower floor of 44 %, since superseded by Regulation (EU) 2019/1009. Treat any claim materially above 46.4 % as an error rather than an advantage.

Why does biuret matter and what is the limit?

Biuret forms when two urea molecules condense under heat, and plants take it up but cannot metabolise it, so it causes leaf-tip chlorosis and then necrosis. Citrus and pineapple are classically sensitive. Broadcast soil application dilutes it, so 1.0 % is the usual agricultural ceiling, but foliar spraying delivers it straight onto the leaf and needs low-biuret material below about 0.25 %. Diesel exhaust fluid needs tighter still. Biuret cannot be removed after manufacture, so it is a decision about which plant made the cargo.

Why does urea cake, and how is it prevented?

Urea has a critical relative humidity of 72.5 % at 30 °C. Above that it absorbs moisture from the air, and when conditions dry again the dissolved surface layer recrystallises as solid bridges between particles. Repeated humidity cycling under stack pressure turns those bridges into a hard block. The controls are moisture at or below 0.5 % at packing, cooling the product before bagging, anti-caking treatment, an intact polyethylene liner inside the bag, covered storage on dunnage with limited stack height, and managing container sweat with lining and desiccant.

Is urea treated with formaldehyde, and does it matter?

Most traded urea is treated with a urea-formaldehyde concentrate such as UFC 85, dosed into the melt at roughly 0.3 to 0.6 % by mass of the finished product. Be careful with that number: it is the additive dose rate, and because UFC 85 is only about 60 % formaldehyde the formaldehyde content of the urea itself is lower. The treatment hardens the particle and suppresses caking, which is a benefit for fertiliser use. It is unwelcome for melamine production, for some resin chemistries, for diesel exhaust fluid and for certain regulated feed uses, and some destinations scrutinise it on import. Ask whether the material is treated, on which basis the figure is quoted, and have the answer written onto the Certificate of Analysis.

What grade of urea is used for AdBlue and diesel exhaust fluid?

Technical grade urea, dissolved to a 32.5 % aqueous solution designated AUS 32 and specified by ISO 22241-1. The finished fluid must hold biuret below 0.3 % by mass, aldehydes below 5 mg/kg, insoluble matter below 20 mg/kg, phosphate below 0.5 mg/kg, and copper, zinc, chromium and nickel below 0.2 mg/kg each. Because the solution is only 32.5 % urea, the 0.3 % solution limit corresponds to roughly 0.9 % biuret on the solid, which is why agricultural urea sitting at its 1.0 % ceiling cannot be used.

How much urea fits in a 20-foot container?

Less than many offers claim, because urea cubes out before it weighs out. A 20-foot general purpose container gives roughly 33 m³ of internal volume, and urea at 0.72 to 0.78 t/m³ needs about 1.3 to 1.4 m³ per tonne, so even a perfectly filled box tops out near 24 to 26 t against a payload rating of about 28 t. Allowing for real stacking, that works out at roughly 21 to 23 MT in 50 kg bags, about 17 to 20 MT in one-tonne jumbo bags where the void space between bags costs you cargo, and about 23 to 25 MT loaded bulk into a container liner. Treat a quoted 25 to 27 MT of bagged urea per 20-foot container as an arithmetic error until a loading plan proves otherwise, and check the destination road weight limit as well, because it can bind before the cube does.

What is the HS code for urea, and is it a dangerous good?

Urea, whether or not in aqueous solution, is classified under HS heading 3102.10; destination countries add their own national subheadings, so confirm the full code with your customs broker. Urea is not a dangerous good for transport and carries no UN number under the IMDG Code. Shipped in bulk by sea it appears in the IMSBC Code as a Group C cargo. The real handling hazard is ammonia accumulation in sealed containers, holds and silos, which should be treated as a confined-space entry with ventilation and gas testing.

QC
How this page is maintainedSpecification values on this page are stated as typical commercial ranges and are cross-referenced to the published test methods that produce them, principally the ISO fertiliser methods (ISO 5315 for total nitrogen, ISO 2754 for biuret, ISO 760 for water, ISO 8397 for test sieving, ISO 8398 for crushing strength and ISO 3944 for loose bulk density), the AOAC Kjeldahl method for total nitrogen, ISO 22241 for aqueous urea solution, and the destination requirements set by India's Fertiliser Control Order and by European Union fertilising products regulation. Where a figure is a producer declaration rather than a test result — the anti-caking additive dose rate is the main case — it is labelled as such rather than dressed up as an analysis. They are provided for technical orientation and commercial discussion. Standards are periodically revised and method designations change between editions, so work from the current edition of the standard named in your contract. The binding specification for any shipment is the one written into the sales contract and evidenced by the batch Certificate of Analysis. If you find a value on this page that conflicts with a current standard, tell us and we will correct it.

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Send four things and the enquiry can be priced without a round of questions: prilled or granular, the biuret limit your application needs, packing and quantity, and the destination port with your Incoterm. If the cargo is for foliar, technical or diesel exhaust fluid duty, say so at the start, because that changes which material can be offered. WhatsApp +971 56 144 5733.

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