Author: meninderkaurdavies

Andy Hemphill , senior editor for potash at ICIS Fertilizers, takes a deep dive into the potash market. Potash producers are praying that tight capacity control and resurgent demand will curb the current bearish price trend.

CRU events will convene the 2020 Phosphates International Conference & Exhibition in Paris at the Marriott Rive Gauche between 8-10 March.

Leading nitrogen and phosphate producers, including ICL, OCP and Yara, have all launched major sustainable fertilizer production projects. The aim is to incorporate recovered nutrients or low-carbon feedstocks into their manufacturing processes.

Sirius Minerals is in talks with Anglo American about a £386 million cash offer for its UK-based polyhalite mine project.

The theme of the 26th Arab Fertilizer Association Annual Fertilizer Forum & Exhibition is ‘Reshaping the industry future’. This year’s Forum will be held at the Semiramis Intercontinental, Cairo, 11-13 February 2020. New AFA Secretary General, Raed Soub , provides a preview of what is the Arab region’s showcase annual fertilizer event.

Leading EU phosphate and NPK fertilizer producers are profiled, including EuroChem, Fertiberia, Grupa Azoty, ICL, Prayon and Yara.

BASF has filed a patent application for a greenhouse gas-free method for producing methanol. If successful on a large-scale, the process could eliminate carbon dioxide emissions throughout the entire production process from synthesis gas generation to pure methanol.

Cryogenic purge gas recovery units are very tolerant to increased flow from ammonia plant debottlenecking, especially the cryogenic cold box section. However, overload of the dehydration system upstream of the cold box can lead to fouling, loss of hydrogen recovery performance and the need for costly shutdown and thaw. Awareness of key plant parameters and some simple precautions can avoid such problems. A. J. Finn and T. R. Tomlinson of Costain provide some guidance.

EuroChem Group has announced the appointment of Samir Brikho as chairman of the company’s board of directors. Brikho has served on the board since 2018. He has also held senior management positions at Asea and ABB Power Generation between 1983 and 2000, before moving to Alstom, where he served as Chief International Operations Officer and Senior Vice-President, and CEO of Alstom Kraftwerke in Germany. In 2003, he became CEO of ABB Lummus Global and in 2005 he was appointed to the Group Executive Committee of ABB Ltd, and served as Head of the Power Systems Division at ABB Group. From 2006 to 2016 he was CEO of Amec Foster Wheeler. In 2009 and 2016 Brikho was chair of the World Economic Forum’s Engineering and Construction Board.

Highlights of papers presented at the recent Ammonium Nitrate/Nitric Acid (ANNA) Conference, held in September in Vienna.