Edition Tag: Nitrogen Syngas 2024-09-30

As the industry pushes towards more sustainable practices, ammonia is emerging as a promising alternative fuel for ships. Effective management of by-product NOx, NH3 and N2 O emissions from the combustion of ammonia is crucial to the success of ammonia as an alternative fuel. A new catalyst has been developed by Enercat to treat these three molecules in one bed. Jean-Rémi Stephany and Emmanuel Rohart of Enercat – Alsys Group report on this new technology which has been developed in marine ammonia combustion engine conditions.

Innovative catalyst systems from Heraeus and Łukasiewicz Research Network – New Chemical Syntheses Institute contribute to reach climate goals by reducing N2 O emissions during nitric acid production. Dr Uwe Jantsch and Jens Hesse of Heraeus Precious Metals report on the process performance results achieved for N2 O reduction in nitric acid production using FTC gauze systems and iron oxide based secondary catalysts.

Part 1 of this series on stripper efficiency issues provided a brief history of the CO₂ stripping process and discussed how the invention of the HP CO₂ scrubber back in the 1960s revolutionised urea technology. In part 2 we take a look at how high liquid load can affect stripper efficiency.

In its most recent interim report, published on August 15, renewable energy developer Ørsted said that it was abandoning the FlagshipONE renewable methanol project because the anticipated market for green methanol as a marine fuel had not materialised as quickly as expected. The strategic decision comes nearly two years after final investment decision (FID) on the project.

Demand for nitrates has rebounded after a difficult period following the dislocations caused by the war in Ukraine, with UAN in particular seeing rapid growth. Technical ammonium nitrate is also growing on the back of increased mining activity.

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.

Ammonia benchmarks west of Suez remain supported by limited availability at key regional export hubs amid increased potential for cargoes to arrive from the East, where availability is far healthier, and prices appear under pressure. The disparity in prices was illustrated towards the end of August, when Nutrien sold 25,000 tonnes to multiple buyers in NW Europe for 1H September delivery at $550-555/t c.fr. When netted back to Trinidad, the price marks a sizeable premium on the $375/t f.o.b. last achieved by Nutrien back in late June, although given that last business in Algeria was fixed at $520/t f.o.b., it appears there is room for delivered sales into Europe to move up further. Regional availability is still limited, with extreme weather conditions in the US Gulf and North Africa potentially impacting supply further over the coming weeks.

IPCO has expanded its Rotoform range with the high yield XG model for granulation of suspensions. Designed for applications such as sulphur bentonite and urea mixes as well as NPK and other fertilizers, this new Rotoform model can convert solid-containing product melts into consistent, high quality pastilles from 2-4 mm diameter.

Casale’s fluid bed granulation tail gas treatment for nitrogen-based fertilizer employs double temperature scrubbing technology, which handles the granulator exhaust air separately from the cooler exhaust air. The technology can combine dust removal with ammonia abatement in the same installation to meet strict tail gas limitations such as 10 mg/Nm3 for dust and 10 mg/Nm3 for ammonia. Ken Monstrey of Casale explains the key features of the Casale scrubbing technology.