Plant digitalisation can contribute to increase the profitability of chemical plants by optimising performance of operation as well as maintenance. Available digital products range from visualisation of plant data for increased transparency to closed-loop AI controllers based on digital twins.
Venkat Pattabathula , a member of the AIChE Ammonia Safety Committee, reports on the American Institute of Chemical Engineers’ Safety in Ammonia Plants and Related Facilities Symposium, held in Munich, Germany, from 20-24 August 2023.
With the growing global demand for food and the rise in ecological challenges, there’s a pressing need for a more sustainable and environmentally-friendly approach to fertilizer production. Achieving a sustainable increase in plant load and operational margins through improved operations is a demanding task. Luc Dieltjens and Ali El Sibai of Stamicarbon discuss how a plant can effectively address these challenges with digital tools to optimise the process.
Large-scale ammonia cracking for conversion of ammonia to hydrogen is a proven technology with decades of industrial experience. Topsoe shares its experience within ammonia cracking and presents an improved and highly energy-efficient (96%) ammonia cracking technology, H2Retake™ , developed based on Topsoe’s proven technology and industrial experience.
Lithium ion battery production is driving major expansions in nickel and cobalt extraction, but lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery use is growing rapidly.
With the aid of a rigorous kinetic model for TGU hydrogenation reactors, incorporating catalyst deactivation mechanisms, designers and operators can forecast the life expectancy of reactor catalyst beds.
As producers and regulators become increasingly concerned about the ‘circular economy’, there is increasing focus on regenerating waste sulphuric acid for re-use.
In this case study Johannes Derfler of AGRU Kunststofftechnik reports on how a new condenser design, engineered by OMV and INWA AG using PFA sheets from AGRU, was implemented at OMV refinery in Austria to address maintenance problems due to corrosion of the wet sulphuric acid (WSA) condensers and the follow-up units. As a result of the renovation, maintenance costs have been cut in half, while both maintenance intervals and overall operational safety has increased.
A new burner design for the combustion of natural gas with either combustion air or pure oxygen as the oxidiser has been developed by CS Combustion Solutions. The new Oxijet® -Burner has been designed to perform both start-up and main operation functions with one burner. The key objectives, challenges, and burner design considerations are discussed.
Comprimo and Ametek now offer the Analyser Air Control Technology (2ACT) Solution to the industry in which the information for the SRU air control is available 6-7 minutes earlier with the installation of an acid gas feed analyser-based feed forward control. This improvement to conventional SRU combustion air control systems enables operating companies to control their assets closer to design capacity at higher recovery efficiency and with fewer unscheduled outages.