Edition Tag: Nitrogen Syngas 2020-11-30

Alistair Wallace , Head of Fertilizer Research, Argus Media, assesses price trends and the market outlook for nitrogen.

This case study describes a backflow scenario in a pressurised leak detection system. Backflow can occur in case of a relatively large leak (crack in liner), where the flowmeter installed downstream of the equipment acts as a flow restriction, allowing pressure to build up.

Malte Plewa, Volker Schmidt, Daniel Ávila and Enrico Rubertus of German development agency GIZ and Dr. Silke Karcher of the German Environment Ministry (BMU) discuss action on climate change from nitric acid production and the Nitric Acid Climate Action Group (NACAG) and its global initiative for mitigating emissions.

This year has been one of the stranger ones in my life, and I’m sure yours as well. Looking back from the perspective of late October 2020, I had no idea at the start of the year how much time I was going to be spending in my study rather than in the office or a hotel! Covid has forced major lifestyle changes upon all of us this year, and it has definitely accelerated some trends that were already making themselves felt, but which have suddenly become a major part of our forced adaptation to strange times. I haven’t used cash since March, for example, except at one stubborn local takeaway that can’t take contactless payments. Perhaps the greatest of these changes has been enforced remote working, and that has meant looking at digital technologies and the way we can use them. Even those of us who are, shall we say, not digital natives or early adopters, have had to become intimate with both the potential and the pitfalls of Zoom, Teams and all of the rest.

The UK Agricultural Industries Confederation has announced that Sam Bell , UK Commercial Director at CF Industries and Nick Major , Corporate Affairs Director at ForFarmers have taken over as chairs for the AIC’s Fertiliser Executive Committee and Feed Executive Committee, respectively.

By harnessing the power of real-time data and exploiting the opportunities provided by digital solutions plant owners can achieve greater plant efficiency and reliability. In this article Stamicarbon shows the benefits of the Stami Digital Plant Optimiser for urea plants, OnPoint Digital Solutions provides a case study on optimising primary reformer heater operations using Smart Combustion™ , TOYO provides an update on its digital transformation service DX-PLANT® and thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions provides examples of how digital solutions can be used to improve plant operation.

Johnson Matthey and KBR have announced that they have signed a global strategic alliance agreement to license a new ammonia-methanol co-production process that combines the companies’ ammonia and methanol process technologies. The companies say that the co-production process makes the most of synergies between the two technologies, maximising savings while offering the highest levels of safety, flexibility and reliability.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) have announced the ‘Next Gen Fertilizer Challenge’, a joint EPA-USDA partnership and competition to advance agricultural sustainability in the United States. The competition includes two challenges that seek proposals for new and existing fertilizer technologies to maintain or improve crop yields while reducing the impacts of fertilizers on the environment.

Every five years since 1955, the Chinese government has prepared its ‘Five Year Plan’ for the country’s economy over the coming half decade. This year, the 14th Five Year Plan is being drafted, and given the influence of the Chinese economy over the global chemical sector, its conclusions will be eagerly awaited.

A few years ago DME production from methanol gave a major boost to world methanol demand, with DME being used as a blendstock for LPG. However, demand plateaued and DME has not had the takeoff that its proponents feel it should have. Could new renewable DME processes give it the boost it needs?