As industry trends add pressure to optimise processes, new digital technologies for roundthe-clock, data-driven decision-making can help plants boost production efficiency without time-consuming manual analysis or large-scale investment. Here, Dr S. Werner of Navigance explores their potential and shares the difference they are already making.
The ammonia industry seems to have quite a buzz about it at the moment. As can be glimpsed in our Nitrogen Industry News section this issue, the number of proposed green ammonia production sites continues to grow, as does interest in ammonia as a hydrogen or energy carrier, while the shipping sector continues to seriously consider ammonia as a green fuel candidate for the longer term. The latter prospect could see current ammonia demand double by 2050, although as our article on sustainable nitrogen production on page 22 notes, whether enough renewable power will exist by then to generate that must be seriously doubted.
Because of the ongoing pandemic, this year’s CRU Nitrogen + Syngas conference was held as a ‘virtual’ event, in early March 2021.
Georgy Eliseev , Principal Analyst at Fertecon for IHS Markit, looks at the medium to long term outlook for both ‘green’ and ‘blue’ ammonia production.
Bodo Albrecht, BASF writes: Among the many sad news of 2020 is the passing of Alan Heywood, a leading authority in the advancement of nitric acid catalysts and recovery systems. At the time I first met Alan in 1997, he already had 6 patents to his name ranging from improved aircraft gas turbine igniters and “ZGS” grain stabilized precious metal composite materials to PGPs “cartridge” catalyst, arguably the first true catalyst system ever produced.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) says that it plans to build a $3 billion methanol plant on Brass Island in the Niger Delta to produce up to 10,000 t/d of methanol using from gas supplied by Shell. A final investment decision was made by NNPC, DSV Engineering and the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, a state agency set up to ensure Nigerian involvement in oil and gas projects. Around 70% of funding for the project will come from international lenders, including the China Export-Import Bank, the African Development Bank and international commercial banks, with the rest funded from an equity issue. BP has signed a 10 year offtake deal for the plant’s output with the Brass Fertilizer & Petrochemical Company, the entity set up to operate the plant. Construction of the plant is expected to be completed by 2025.
From new materials of construction and improved equipment designs to the latest digital tools, Casale, thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions, Saipem, TOYO and Stamicarbon report on some of their latest achievements.
Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) has unveiled plans to build Europe’s largest power-to-ammonia facility at the Danish port of Esbjerg, based on electricity from offshore wind turbines. The company said the plant will consist of 1GW of electrolysis capacity, capable of supplying sufficient hydrogen to produce 300,000 t/a of ammonia, and that the ammonia will be used as both as agricultural fertiliser and as fuel for the shipping industry. Excess heat generated in the process would be used to provide heating for around one third of local households in communities around the plant, to be sited on the west coast of Denmark. The company has signed a memorandum of understanding for the project with companies from both the agriculture and shipping sectors, including Danish Crown, Arla, DLG, Maersk and DFDS Seaways. CIP anticipates that it would cost approximately $1.2 billion to build the facility. They are currently seeking investors for the project and expect that the investment decision would be reached by 2023. The plant could enter commercial operations in 2026.
A complete listing of all articles and news items that appeared in Nitrogen+Syngas magazine during 2020.
It can’t have escaped anyone’s notice that the question of the carbon intensity of ammonia and downstream nitrogen compound production has been one of the main industry talking points for the past year. Everyone seems to be talking about ammonia of different colours – green ammonia, blue ammonia, and all shades of turquoise in between. If you are confused, it may not be surprising, as these words have come to cover a wide variety of different methods and technologies for producing ammonia, and their green credentials consequently come in a whole range of different shades.