Magazine: Nitrogen+Syngas

Hans Vrijenhoef has stepped down as Chief Executive Officer of Proton Ventures with immediate effect. He will continue to serve as non-executive chairman of the management board for at least another three years to support the growth of the existing business of green ammonia production technologies. Paul Baan succeeded Hans Vrijenhoef as of April 1st, 2021. Baan has served in leadership positions at Ørsted and EON. He is an engineer by background who has a strong understanding of Power to X technology and business cases.

Gas availability and pricing continues to affect ammonia and methanol output from Trinidad, while Venezuela struggles with sanctions and political instability.

Although the urea market has weathered the pandemic relatively well, a significant amount of new capacity is due to come on-stream in the next year or so, and could keep prices depressed unless more Chinese capacity closes.

Judging by the pages of the project announcements in our news section, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the ammonia and methanol industries were all running off hydrogen generated from electrolysis, and that we had already entered an era of ‘clean’ chemical generation which did not require fossil fuels as a feedstock. Of course, while companies can naturally be forgiven for wanting to put the best public face on their green credentials, it does obscure the fact that for the moment 99% of syngas generation comes from natural gas, coal, and some coke or naphtha.

Reducing the carbon footprint in the synthesis of chemicals is a new global challenge as the world works towards providing sustainable products designed to minimise their environmental impacts throughout their whole lifecycle. This article looks at the role of blue technologies as part of a roadmap towards the decarbonisation of fuels and chemicals.

The ammonia industry faced a difficult February, due to extremely cold weather conditions in the northern hemisphere. In the US, production outages resulting from winter storm Uri affected up to 7 million t/a of capacity.

Market Insight courtesy of Argus Media

Shutdowns in technical ammonia capacity due to the pandemic have contributed to make 2020 a turbulent year for ammonia markets, but plant shutdowns, strong fertilizer demand and a shortage of new merchant ammonia capacity are contributing to finally removing the burden of overcapacity.

Several safety risks threaten urea high pressure equipment such as high pressures, high temperatures, various kind of corrosion phenomena, crystallisation risks, and the release of large volumes of toxic ammonia in case of a leak. A significant number of serious incidents with high pressure urea equipment still occur in the industry and, in 50% of cases, a failing leak detection system was one of the main causes. UreaKnowHow’s Risk Register for a 316L urea grade reactor identifies 50+ safety risks of which 75% can be prevented by operating a proper leak detection system. In this article, UreaKnowHow answers some key questions about the importance of an effective active leak detection system.

Ammonia synthesis catalysts have long lives and catalyst replacement is an infrequent activity. Many people will go through their careers in the ammonia industry without ever having to replace a synthesis catalyst and the infrequent nature of catalyst replacement means that many plants may not have direct experience of this activity. Ammonia synthesis catalyst can present a range of hazards throughout the replacement process, from transport through loading, reduction, start-up, shutdown and discharge, but the good practice illustrated in this article, and collaboration between catalyst suppliers and end users can ensure safe and successful catalyst changeouts.