Section: CRUNS Industry News

NextChem subsidiary Stamicarbon has been selected to provide the process design package to upgrade the Hulunbuir New Gold Chemical Co., Ltd.’s urea plant in Hulunbuir, Inner Mongolia, using its proprietary NX STAMI UreaTM technology. The upgrade will integrate Stamicarbon’s EVOLVE MELT MP flash design to enhance operational efficiency and reliability while minimizing process steam consumption. Following the upgrade, the plant’s capacity will be increased by about 26% to 3,600 t/d, with an expected high-pressure steam reduction of 15%.

Orica says it has achieved a decarbonisation milestone by eliminating 1.0 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2-e) from its Kooragang Island site, the equivalent of taking 600,000 cars off the road. The emissions reduction is the result of deployment of tertiary abatement technology on three nitric acid plants, in a project co-financed by the New South Wales Government’s Net Zero Industry and Innovation Program and the Federal Government’s Clean Energy Finance Corporation. The Clean Energy Regulator also approved the project as eligible to generate Australian carbon credit units.

Maire Group says that its nitrogen fertilizer technology licensor Stamicarbon has been awarded new contracts related to its NX STAMI UreaTM technology in Canada. The first award is a process design package and the licensing of an integrated urea and diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) production plant currently being developed by Genesis Fertilizers, a farmer-owned consortium, at Belle Plaine, Saskatchewan. The plant will have a urea melt capacity of 2,500 t/d, with operations expected to begin by 2029. Also thanks to a carbon capture and sequestration unit, it will be the first proposed low-carbon nitrogen fertilizer plant in Canada. Stamicarbon will apply its proprietary flash urea melt technology to enhance operational efficiency and reliability while minimising process steam consumption. The plant will also include a DEF facility with a production capacity of 1,500 t/d.

6th February, 2025 Johnson Matthey (JM) – a global leader in sustainable technologies – and Bosch a leading supplier to the automotive industry – have today agreed terms to accelerate future projects together. The agreement confirms both parties’ intentions to develop and produce catalyst coated membranes (CCM) for use in fuel cell stacks. Transforming and […]

A foundation laying ceremony attended by Qatar’s Deputy Amir Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Thani has been held at Qafco’s new blue ammonia facility at Mesaieed Industrial City on Qatar’s east coast. The plant, which is scheduled to be completed in 4Q 2026, will be the largest blue ammonia facility in the world. Speaking at the ceremony, energy minister Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi said the facility will have a capacity of 1.2 million t/a, along with CO2 injection and storage facilities with a capacity of 1.5 million t/a. QatarEnergy will also provide the new plant with more than 35 MW of electricity from the solar power plant currently being built in Mesaieed. Completion of the complex will see Qatar become the world’s largest exporter of urea, producing 12.4 million t/a, according to Qafco.

Carbon Recycling International (CRI), which operates a geothermally powered green methanol plant at Svartsengi, 40km southwest of Reykjavik, had to evacuate its site in late November when a 3km fissure opened in the earth a few kilometres away and lava began spilling across adjacent land. Satellite photos of the area taken on November 24 show a large field of molten and cooled lava to the north, west, and south of Svartsengi, though the plant itself remained undamaged. CRI’s Iceland facility runs on CO2 , water, and renewable electricity from the Svartsengi geothermal power station. CRI says the low-carbon energy source allows it to produce 4,000 t/a of methanol with a greenhouse gas footprint just 10–20% that of conventional methanol.

Johnson Matthey technology selected for one of the largest planned e-methanol plants in Europe Reolum project represents the fifth win contributing to JM’s strategic milestone of 20 sustainable technologies project wins by the end of 2025/26 JM has won 15 major energy transition projects since 1st April 2022 Sustainable energy project to operate in region […]

QatarEnergy has announced its decision to build a new, world-scale urea production complex that will more than double Qatar’s urea production. The project is aiming to construct three ammonia production lines which will supply four new world-scale urea production trains in Mesaieed Industrial City. Total capacity for the new complex is projected to be 6.4 million t/a, more than doubling Qatar’s annual urea production from about 6 million tons per annum currently to 12.4 million tons per annum. Production from the project’s first new urea train is expected before the end of this decade.

Methanex Corporation has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire OCI Global’s international methanol business for $2.05 billion. The transaction includes OCI’s interest in two world-scale methanol facilities in Beaumont, Texas, one of which also produces ammonia. The transaction also includes a low-carbon methanol production and marketing business and a currently idled methanol facility in the Netherlands.

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.