Lithium sulphur battery manufacturer Lyten has signed agreements with California Sulphur Company, at the Port of Los Angeles, and a Port of Stockton company to supply US domestically sourced, industrial-grade sulphur to Lyten’s manufacturing facilities in San Jose, CA, San Leandro, CA, and its recently announced Reno, NV, “gigafactory”.
Days 2 and 3 of the CRU’s 38th Nitrogen+Syngas 2025 Expoconference turned to the technical sessions, organised in three parallel streams covering: green ammonia technology, nitric acid and ammonium nitrate, plant operations and reliability, urea technology, digitalisation, carbon capture, emissions reduction and sustainable fertilizer production, and fertilizer finishing.
Blue hydrogen has emerged as a crucial technology for decarbonisation as nations around the world work towards net-zero carbon targets. By decarbonising hydrogen production and exploring clean hydrogen sources we can fully harness the potential of hydrogen in the global energy transition. Johnson Matthey, Topsoe and Casale report on their strategies and advanced technical solutions for large scale blue hydrogen production.
Stamicarbon, in collaboration with KT Tech, has developed a cryogenic energy storage system, named GALCES , for green ammonia plants that addresses the intermittency challenges of renewable energy supply. The technology not only supports the sustainability goals of the ammonia production industry but also contributes to broader energy market stability and efficiency.
One of the key challenges of producing RFNBO (renewable fuels of non-biological origin) compliant ammonia is managing the intermittency associated with renewable energy sources for hydrogen production. Furthermore, the additional costs associated with managing this intermittency can be significant. In this article, Dr Solomos Georgiou of AFRY Management Consulting explores those additional costs as well as potential ways to achieve cost savings and make RFNBO-compliant ammonia production competitive against conventional ‘grey’ ammonia.
As more focus extends to a circular economy, there are industry wide discussions on whether future global sulphur demand will be challenged by the energy transition and decarbonisation. Hannes Storch, Collin Bartlett and Marcus Runkel of Metso discuss how the recycling of pyrite tailings could address some of these issues.
Green ammonia production facilities can be situated in remote areas with access to often fully off-grid renewable power supply. This article examines plant concepts and discusses the challenges and solutions for these plant architectures. Through a case study, an efficient and innovative methodology to compare options and optimise the sizing of the plant is presented. The methodology addresses the intermittency of the power production, the flexibility limits of the main process units, and the costs of investment and operation, using proprietary techno-economic dynamic simulation software, Odyssey.
The pursuit of operational excellence requires continuous process monitoring, together with qualified analysis of the collected data. The Digital Process Monitor (DPM) provides a process digital twin which consists of an accurate process plant model that incorporates the licensor’s knowledge and expertise in sulphur recovery technology, thereby providing continuous insights into plant performance. This article provides an overview of the DPM features focusing on the related benefits in terms of overall operational improvements and plant efficiency for the sulphur recovery unit.
While the events of the past few years have been difficult for Europe on many fronts, including a wholesale realignment of its energy sources with the restriction of access to Russian oil and gas, the effect on Europe’s sulphur production seems likely to be just as profound.
As refiners adapt to the transition to a lower carbon economy, different strategies are likely to impact upon sulphur output.