Objective
To cut down energy consumption within the montedison urea plant located at Ferrara (Production capacity 1680 T/D) at the same time realising a full scale demonstrative plant of the IDR technology already tested on semi-industrial scale at the 300 T/D urea plant located at S. Giuseppe di Cairo (Savona).
The performances obtained have confirmed the results just obtained in the experimental urea plant of S. GIUSEPPE DI CAIRO and precisely :
- High reactor conversion/pass (about 70 %)
- Effective operation of the isobaric recycle form the two decomposers
- Complete recovery of the reaction heat as well as of heat supplied to the decomposers as steam at 6 : 6,5 Bar ABS.
- Steam consumption significantly lower than in the best current technologies no problem connected to the scale-up of the equipment.
Therefore the process can be licensed for any capacity with different reference plants.
The steam consumption of the Ferrara plant before the modification was 1060 Kg/T urea, now is 577 Kg/T urea. The energy saving obtained on the basis of a year's production of 560000 T of urea is 17850 TOE/Y.
The project is consisted in installing-within the Montedison urea plant located at Ferrara. A new synthesis section based on the IDR technology as applied in 1980 in the Montedison urea plant of S. Giuseppe di Cairo (300 T/D capacity). The application of such technology to a plant having a production capacity in line with that of the more recently constructed urea plants (1500-2000 T/D) will help in removing the perplexity expressed by potential customers with regard to the limited capacity of the S. Giuseppe di Cairo plant.
The IDR technology developed and tested at the S. Giuseppe di Cairo urea plant is characterized by high conversion of the reagents into urea and consequently by low energy consumption and easy recycling of the unreacted materials to the reactor. The high conversion of ammonium carbamate into urea (> 70 %) is obtained by operating at high NH3/CO2 molar ratios whereas the recycle of the residue carbamate and of the free NH3 in excess is carried out inside the two decomposers operating in series at the same pressure as the synthesis reactor.
The outgoing urea solution from the reactor at 180 : 210 bar flows to the first falling film stripper from which part of the ammonium carbamate is recycled in vapor phase to the reactor; the heat is supplied by condensing M.P. steam. The solution so obtained is sent to the second falling film stripper using the feeding CO2 as stripping agent. The vapors arising from the second stripper are sent to the carbamate condenser; the heat released is recovered by generating 7 : 9 bar ABS. steam, whilst condensed carbamate is sent back to the reactor.
The steam produced into the carbamate condenser is utilized on the existing sections downstream of the IDR loop.
The urea solution coming out from the second stripper is sent to the existing sections, where the urea prodiction process is completed.
Topic(s)
Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
DEM - Demonstration contractsCoordinator
28138 Milano
Italy