As existing facilities grow older, service requirements increase. Equipment needs to be low maintenance and back in operation quickly after service and repair. Technology licensors are expanding their technical services with new digital tools, using digitalised expertise with real time insights and data driven analytics to boost chemical production and ensure that equipment operates reliably and efficiently, while maintaining product quality.
Paving the way for commercially attractive, sustainable, decarbonised fertilizer production, J. Dobrée of Stamicarbon BV discusses the latest developments for nitrate fertilizer production based on renewable feedstocks sourced from solar and wind energy. Stamicarbon has upgraded plant designs used in the past to create a new type of small-scale fertilizer plant capable of producing a product mix that can be adjusted to meet specific local requirements with maximised output value, thereby maintaining a competitive position towards imported products and large-scale producers.
Evaporation and crystallisation are widely used throughout the fertilizer industry. Major applications and the types of equipment used are reviewed by Laurent Palierne and Norbert Strieder of GEA Group.
Fluor/GAA continue to strive to improve the performance of the D’GAASS out-of-pit liquid sulphur degassing technology based on commercial operating experience and ever-changing environmental emissions regulations. T. Chow and S. Fenderson of Fluor Energy & Chemicals/ Goar, Allison & Associates discuss operating experience that has led to the improvements of the new patent-pending third generation D’GAASS 3G technology.
Now in its second year, SulGas 2020, South Asia’s only conference on gas treating and sulphur recovery, took place 3-4 February 2020 at the Novotel – Juhu Beach, in Juhu, Mumbai, India.
Clariant has announced that Stephan Lynen will be appointed chief financial officer (CFO) of the company as of April 1st, 2020. Lynen is currently head of the Clariant’s Additives business unit, and has served with the company for more than 20 years in various international general management and business roles. He will succeed Patrick Jany who will be leaving to pursue a career opportunity outside of Clariant as CFO of A.P. Moller-Maersk, a global leader in shipping services.
Lessons can be learned from the challenges faced during the construction, commissioning and start-up phases of major projects. In this article challenges and experiences are shared from the recent successful commissioning of ammonia and urea plants around the world, including projects in Indonesia, India, Egypt and the Middle East.
Schoeller-Bleckmann Nitec (SBN), an experienced manufacturer of high pressure equipment for ammonia and urea plants for many years, also helps customers when things go wrong. SBN has come to the aid of operators on numerous occasions, helping them return their plant to operation as soon as possible when a problem occurs. R. Bunzl discusses SBN’s approach to finding solutions to a number of exceptional problems in urea equipment.
We look at state-of-the-art technology used in phosphate and potash mining, including equipment and systems for excavation, tailings thickening, transport, tunnelling and processing.
Hydrocarbon contamination of sour water streams feeding sour water strippers is a well-known challenge in the refining and gas processing industry. The source of this challenge is the formation of a stable oil emulsion in an aqueous phase that may contain both H 2 S and NH 3 . The typical approach to the problem involves large residence time tanks with the assumption that droplet settling will occur over a long enough time frame. In practice, droplet settling is very slow due to a variety of reasons, and as a result, operators encounter sour water heat exchanger fouling, stripper fouling, hydrocarbon excursions to sulphur recovery units along with other operating challenges. M. Thundyil, D. Seeger and E. McIntosh of Transcend Solutions present a case study of the TORSEP™ oil and solids removal system for contamination removal from a sour water feed stream. The case study illustrates the effect on heat exchanger fouling along with the effect of the variation of several system parameters on operating performance and economics.