Tag: Catalyst

With the current focus on decarbonising ammonia production, Tom Davison of Johnson Matthey explains the important role of high activity ammonia synthesis catalyst in the production of green ammonia.

Sumit Rao of Hindustan Platinum Private Ltd describes two recent start-up issues with catalyst gauze packs at a nitric acid plant, and their remediation to allow production to continue.

As plants move towards full unit control, Jochen Geiger of Ametek Process Instruments provides an overview of how the latest sulphur plant analysers are providing greater insight into sulphur plant operations.

Rohit Khurana and Umesh Jainker of KBR presented a technical paper on this topic during the 2013 Asian Nitrogen + Syngas Conference. It can be found in the UreaKnowHow.com E-Library with the title: ”Replacing ammonia plant catalyst with maximum efficiency and lowest cost”. The paper addresses the importance of de-dusting catalyst beds before commissioning and the serious impacts on the plant if not performed thoroughly. Many ammonia plants have faced problems related to the plugging of exchangers, pipe choking, pressure drop increase of the downstream catalyst beds and separators or foaming in the CO 2 removal section which could be caused by the presence of catalyst dust. Most of these problems have led to either decrease in the efficiency of the plant or operation at lower throughputs. The paper presents the critical steps and procedures for proper dedusting of the catalyst beds before commissioning. In addition, the foaming problem in the CO 2 removal section associated with catalyst dust is discussed signifying the importance of cleaning the CO 2 removal system and solution. The role of filters in the CO 2 removal section was also emphasised.

SunGas Renewables Inc. has formed a new subsidiary, Beaver Lake Renewable Energy, LLC (BLRE), to construct a new green methanol production facility in central Louisiana. The project will have a capacity of 400,000 t/a of green methanol, using gasified biomass, specifically wood fibre from local, sustainably-managed forests as feedstock. The methanol will have a negative carbon intensity through sequestration of the nearly 1.0 million t/a of carbon dioxide produced by the project, which will be executed by Denbury Carbon Solutions. The methanol will then be used as a clean marine fuel by A.P. Moller–Maersk, which is building a fleet of methanol-powered container vessels.

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 in Munich, Germany, from 20-24 August 2023.

Large-scale ammonia cracking for conversion of ammonia to hydrogen is a proven technology with decades of industrial experience. Topsoe shares its experience within ammonia cracking and presents an improved and highly energy-efficient (96%) ammonia cracking technology, H2Retake™ , developed based on Topsoe’s proven technology and industrial experience.

With the aid of a rigorous kinetic model for TGU hydrogenation reactors, incorporating catalyst deactivation mechanisms, designers and operators can forecast the life expectancy of reactor catalyst beds.

Comprimo and Ametek now offer the Analyser Air Control Technology (2ACT) Solution to the industry in which the information for the SRU air control is available 6-7 minutes earlier with the installation of an acid gas feed analyser-based feed forward control. This improvement to conventional SRU combustion air control systems enables operating companies to control their assets closer to design capacity at higher recovery efficiency and with fewer unscheduled outages.

The world’s transition toward the use of hydrogen and ammonia as clean energy and fuel sources will depend upon production technologies that are affordable, scalable, and meet net zero carbon targets. 8 Rivers recently introduced8 RH2 , a groundbreaking solution that offers world-leading efficiency in hydrogen production and captures over 99% of CO2 emissions. Maulik Shelat of 8 Rivers provides an overview of the technology with a comparison to other low-carbon hydrogen production technologies.