Section: Features

A review of papers presented at CRU’s Nitrogen+Syngas 2025 Expoconference, held in Barcelona from February 10th-12th 2025.

A European ammonia plant, has successfully restarted following a revamp of the process gas cooling section, executed by Casale. Casale replaced the outdated boilers located downstream of the secondary reformer with three new double-tube type boilers supplied by Arvos. The new boilers were installed in the same location as the previous ones, minimising investment costs and plant modifications. The more robust and reliable design of the Casale-Arvos boilers has resulted in enhanced overall performance and reliability of the ammonia plant.

Paralloy has developed Omega technology, an advanced reformer tube design that enhances heat transfer, gas turbulence, and process efficiency. Dr Dominique Flahaut of Paralloy explores the real-world implications of Omega reformer tubes.

Esben Sørensen and Glenn Rexwinkel of Plug Power review the safety aspects of integrating hydrogen production by electrolysis into existing ammonia processes. Novel safety risks associated with such changes are surmountable and the analysis presented shows that green ammonia production can be no more hazardous than traditional ammonia production.

New carbon capture-based plants could see US nitrogen capacity jump over the next few years, but Trump attacks on IRA tax credits may scupper some ongoing projects.

India’s push to replace its sizeable urea imports with home grown capacity continues, but may not keep pace with rising domestic demand.

Nitrogen+Syngas ’s annual listing of new ammonia, urea, nitric acid and ammonium nitrate plants.

Sulphur’s key role as a plant nutrient means that its use as a fertilizer continues to be a major area of demand.

Tight supply limits availability as China maintains export restrictions.

Rapidly increasing lithium production is projected to require several million t/a of sulphuric acid in the next few years, with China, the USA and Australia the main consumers.