Major fertilizer industry players such as Stamicarbon, Nutrien and CF Industries are ramping up investment in ‘green’ and ‘blue’ fertilizer production. Consequently, low-carbon production technologies are being scaled-up and deployed commercially.
Market Insight courtesy of Argus Media
While the past couple of years have seen considerable excitement and momentum concerning the use of blue/green ammonia as a fuel, an announcement in August by Maersk, the largest shipping company in the world, has served once again as a useful reminder that ammonia is not the only candidate molecule. Maersk said on August 24th that it is ordering eight methanol powered vessels from South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries at a total cost of $1.4 billion. Each giant ship will have the capacity to carry 16,000 twenty-foot [container] equivalent units (TEUs).
Market Insight courtesy of Argus Media
Venkat Pattabathula, a member of the AIChE Ammonia Safety Committee, reports on the American Institute of Chemical Engineers’ Safety in Ammonia Plants and Related Facilities Symposium, held virtually on 30 August to 2 September 2021.
The first half of 2021 has been characterised by tight supply in the ammonia market, exacerbated by plant outages in Europe, Trinidad, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia. At the same time, higher spot demand has fuelled significant price increases in both the eastern and western hemispheres. Low inventories and reduced export availability in the Far East forced Indian phosphate producers and industrial consumers of ammonia to source product from other locations.
Although the stranded gas boom that led to the construction of the region’s nitrogen capacity in the 1980s-2000s may be largely over, the Middle East remains the largest nitrogen exporting region in the world.
By utilising state-of-the-art technologies, nitric acid and ammonium nitrate producers are able to reduce the environmental impact of their production plants and make a key contribution to climate protection.
India’s power and renewable energy minister RK Singh has placed draft plans before the cabinet for the country’s refining and fertilizer sectors to switch to renewable ‘green’ hydrogen feeds. Other energy intensive sectors such as steel and transport are likely to follow. The policy suggests that refiners must have 10% of their hydrogen consumption generated from renewable electricity by the end of financial year 2023-24, rising to 25% by 2030. The comparable figures for ammonia/urea production are 5% and 20%, respectively. India is pursuing some of the world’s most ambitious renewable energy targets of 175 GW of renewable energy capacity by the end of 2022 and 450 GW by 2030.
Chemetics describes a variety of ways to extend the life of sulphuric acid plants. Debottlenecking, emissions reduction and/or energy recovery projects require a systematic, phased approach to maximise the potential of economic and operational benefits to the owner.