The past year has been a difficult, even disastrous one for Europe’s fertilizer producers. High natural gas prices have kept plants shuttered, with 70% of the continent’s ammonia production shut down at times. It remains uncertain how much of this will return to production this year, or indeed ever.
Decreasing the carbon intensity of sulphur recovery is one of the many actions that operators can take to help meet their climate ambitions. It is also becoming increasingly rewarding financially because of the rising cost of carbon emissions. In this article, G. Kidambi of Shell Projects & Technology demonstrates the potential to cut the carbon intensity of tail gas treating units by more than 50% through swapping to the latest SCOT ULTRA amine solvent and catalyst technologies.
One year on from the launch of its Farm to Fork Strategy, the European Commission is still failing Europe’s farmers, says Igor Shmidt, EuroChem Group’s head of public affairs.
Georgy Eliseev , Principal Analyst at Fertecon for IHS Markit, looks at the medium to long term outlook for both ‘green’ and ‘blue’ ammonia production.
The profound demand shock caused by Covid-related lockdowns has had a major impact upon the refining industry. Run rates have been at low levels in North America and Europe, and a new wave of rationalisation is under way, at the same time that capacity continues to grow in Asia. Will this spur diversification into petrochemicals and low carbon options for Atlantic basin refiners?
As the world focuses on clean fuels for the 21st century, there is an emerging opportunity to use ammonia as a source of hydrogen. Hydrogen fuel cells are expected to play a significant role as part of a clean energy portfolio. T2M Global and its development partner, SAFCell, are collaborating to develop a modular system to produce hydrogen from ammonia using a novel solid state separation system that does not require pressure or solvents. P. Patel of T2M Global, C. Chisholm of SAFCell and V. Pattabathula of Incitec Pivot explain the challenges, the opportunities and the current status of this new technology.