Further downward corrections are possible but the rate of demand is stabilising, suggesting the market floor is in sight, though some have suggested that May could bring another sharp reduction in the Tampa contract price towards the mid$300s c.fr. Demand remains sluggish in both eastern and western hemispheres.
Advances in clean hydrogen and ammonia production is fuelling worldwide interest in a new market for hydrogen and ammonia to provide a reliable low-carbon energy future. Ammonia cracking, the dissociation of ammonia back into hydrogen, delivers a pathway to large-scale sustainable hydrogen production. In this article KBR, Johnson Matthey, thyssenkrupp Uhde, Duiker, Proton Ventures and Casale report on their technologies and approaches to ammonia cracking in a low carbon economy.
With the market for green ammonia set to grow significantly in the coming years, modularisation of ammonia plants can bring many benefits to new projects, including optimised cost, speed of delivery and reducing overall risks. thyssenkrupp Uhde is committed to further develop standardised, modular solutions for its clients. Tobias Birwe and Dustin Mayor explain the company’s modularisation concept.
Pipe reactors in ammonium nitrate plants suffer from short lifetimes due to serious corrosion and erosion issues. A new solution from NobelClad could provide a unique opportunity to address the problem faced by licensors and end-users in the pipe reactors of ammonium nitrate plants. The NobelClad solution provides higher safety and reliability standards and less downtime and maintenance leading to an attractive payback time.
New methods for low-carbon ammonia production are emerging, while project activity is also rising rapidly.
Single superphosphate (SSP) is relatively easy and cheap to make. Yet traditional gas scrubbers often limit production and create plant maintenance issues.Fortunately, an innovative scrubbing technology developed by Armatec Environmental can overcome many of these problems. Based on high efficiency void towers, this new approach helps SSP producers meet stringent global emissions standards, explains Armatec’s Shane Pope , while simultaneously maximising production and improving worker conditions.
Worley has been awarded a contract to supply Chemetics’ CORESO2™ technology for a sulphuric acid plant and associated oxygen unit at the Arafura Rare Earths project, sited 135 km north of Alice Springs in Australia’s Northern Territory. A greenfield mine will extract and process neodymium and praseodymium to create ultra-strong permanent magnets for a range of applications, such as household electronics and high-performance motors for electric vehicles.
A reader wrote to me recently asking if I had considered the impact of general artificially intelligent systems like ChatGPT on the publishing industry. As a matter of fact I had, but only, somewhat narrowly and selfishly, on how it might impact my own job in the future. But the dramatic shift in AI capabilities that we have seen in the past couple of years is certainly food for thought, and I’ve seen no end of articles predicting the death of the creative industries.
New sulphur burning capacity in India is expected to come online in the coming months at fertilizer producer operations. This will lead to an increase in sulphur import demand but also impact sulphuric acid imports to the country.
More than 1,000 delegates from 500 companies and 60 countries gathered at the Sheraton Grand Rio Hotel & Resort, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 29 January – 1 February, for the 2023 Fertilizer Latino Americano (FLA) conference. The event was hosted by CRU in collaboration with Argus. With attendance at record levels this year, we present selected highlights from this year’s four-day FLA event.