Tag: Gasification

Georgy Eliseev , Principal Analyst at Fertecon for IHS Markit, looks at the medium to long term outlook for both ‘green’ and ‘blue’ ammonia production.

Natural gas pricing remains the dominant component of ammonia production costs. The fall in global oil and gas prices due to the Covid outbreak and the continued growth in the LNG market is continuing to break the hold of oil indexation on gas pricing. Meanwhile, reform of gas markets continues, in places as diverse as Brazil, China and India.

Every five years since 1955, the Chinese government has prepared its ‘Five Year Plan’ for the country’s economy over the coming half decade. This year, the 14th Five Year Plan is being drafted, and given the influence of the Chinese economy over the global chemical sector, its conclusions will be eagerly awaited.

A few years ago DME production from methanol gave a major boost to world methanol demand, with DME being used as a blendstock for LPG. However, demand plateaued and DME has not had the takeoff that its proponents feel it should have. Could new renewable DME processes give it the boost it needs?

A. Bhargav and A. Krishnan of Helium Consulting Pvt. Ltd discuss how it is possible to reduce SOx emissions within the existing system setup of an oil refinery or gas plant through detailed analysis, expedited corrective actions and the use of automated algorithms in real-time, by using a digital IIoT solution to monitor, control and optimise.

Johnson Matthey (JM) has been selected by China’s Ningxia Baofeng Energy Group as licensor for a third methanol synthesis plant at their coal to olefins complex near Yinchuan in Ningxia province. With a planned capacity of 7,200 t/d (2.4 million t/a), the unit will be the largest single train methanol plant in the world once completed.

Spanish fertilizer producer Fertiberia is teaming up with energy firm Iberdrola to build Europe’s largest plant for generating green hydrogen for industrial use – in this case ammonia production. The 100MW solar plant and accompanying 20 MWh lithium-ion battery system and 20MW electrolytic hydrogen production system will be built at a cost of $174 million, and electrolyse water to produce 720 t/a of hydrogen. When fed into Fertiberia’s existing ammonia plant at Puertollano, 250km south of Madrid, the hydrogen will allow a 10% reduction in natural gas use by the plant, saving the company 39,000 t/a in annual CO 2 emissions. Start-up is planned for 2021. Fertiberia will also use electrolysis-generated oxygen as a raw material for nitric acid, which is used to produce ammonium nitrate at the site.

Air Products and Haldor Topsoe have signed a global alliance agreement. Under the terms of the agreement the two companies will use their combined market network for developing potential projects and the combination of their expertise on large-scale ammonia, methanol and/or dimethyl ether (DME) plants to be developed and built globally. It gives Air Products access to Topsoe’s technology licenses and the supply of engineering design, equipment, high-performance catalysts and technical services for ammonia, methanol and DME plants that are built, owned and operated by Air Products. It also allows for the integration of Topsoe’s technology into many Air Products’ technologies including gasification of various feedstocks, and synthesis gas processes.

Southeast Asia has been a major site for new syngas projects in recent years as countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei continue to monetise their natural gas resources.

Antonio Sancho , Incro’s managing director, gives a personal view on the circular economy and shares his experience of manufacturing high-quality liquid fertilizers from food industry wastewater.