Tag: Ammonia

High energy storage costs for renewable-based technologies are likely to make European long term carbon prices considerably higher than their present levels.

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.

Prices in most markets should register declines through January, though the extent to which benchmarks will ease is yet unclear. Chinese suppliers have seen significant price declines in recent weeks.

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.

Syngas generation units (SGU) represent a large portion of the capital and operational expenditure of ammonia plants and are critical from a mechanical reliability standpoint. Related capex/opex optimisation and mitigation of possible operational problems are key targets for ammonia plant owners. Giovanni Manenti introduces NITROQUENCH® technology which focuses on these key targets for ammonia SGU.

Expensive feedstock, overseas competition and tightening environmental regulations all pose potential threats to Europe’s nitrogen industry.

A complete list of all articles and news items appearing in Nitrogen+Syngas magazine during 2024.

While there is still a considerable push for use of biomass waste as a lower carbon feedstock for chemical production via gasification to syngas, biological processes such as fermentation are increasingly gaining traction as an alternative.

Brazil’s state-controlled oil company Petrobras plans to resume construction of its UFN-III nitrogen fertilizer unit in Tres Lagoas, Mato Grosso do Sul state.

Market snapshot, 2nd January 2025