Section: CRUNS Market & Features

Highlights of papers presented at the recent Ammonium Nitrate/Nitric Acid (ANNA) Conference, held in September in Vienna.

Cryogenic purge gas recovery units are very tolerant to increased flow from ammonia plant debottlenecking, especially the cryogenic cold box section. However, overload of the dehydration system upstream of the cold box can lead to fouling, loss of hydrogen recovery performance and the need for costly shutdown and thaw. Awareness of key plant parameters and some simple precautions can avoid such problems. A. J. Finn and T. R. Tomlinson of Costain provide some guidance.

BASF has filed a patent application for a greenhouse gas-free method for producing methanol. If successful on a large-scale, the process could eliminate carbon dioxide emissions throughout the entire production process from synthesis gas generation to pure methanol.