Magazine: 391 Sep-Oct 2024

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.

The nitric acid industry has made great strides in reducing nitrous oxide emissions over the past few decades, but emissions from agriculture due to nitrogen fertilizers remain a problematic source of N2 O in the atmosphere.

Stefano Cicchinelli and Carmen Perez of Stamicarbon (MAIRE) explore the latest advancements in tertiary abatement technologies, their implementation in nitric acid plants, and the implications for the fertilizer industry.

OCI Global says that it has reached an agreement for the sale of 100% of its equity interests in its Clean Ammonia project currently under construction in Beaumont, Texas for $2.35 billion on a cash and debt free basis. The buyer is Australian LNG and energy company Woodside Energy Group Ltd. Woodside will pay 80% of the purchase price to OCI at closing of the transaction, with the balance payable at project completion, according to agreed terms and conditions. OCI will continue to manage the construction, commissioning and startup of the facility and will continue to direct the contractors until the project is fully staffed and operational, at which point it will hand it over to Woodside. The transaction is expected to close in H2 2024, subject to shareholder approval.

Based on 16 years of experience, Muhammad Nabeel Shakir of Fatima Fertilizer Company outlines a methodology to achieve optimum performance of the PGM catalyst and catchment system in nitric acid plants.

In China, domestic prices are expected to come under significant downward pressure, with seaborne indications already following suit, with buyers said to have rejected offers around the $375/t c.fr mark.

TOYO has recently introduced new proprietary urea technologies to its technology portfolio including a novel dust scrubbing system with integrated wet electrostatic precipitator (WESP) for ultimate clean-up of granulation or prilling exhaust air, to achieve urea dust emissions of less than 5 mg/Nm3 . Takuhiro Minato of Toyo Engineering Corporation explains how the new system works.

With green ammonia from renewable energy facing cost hurdles to adoption, thoughts have turned to using nuclear energy as a carbon free alternative.