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Contenido archivado el 2022-12-27

ENERGY SAVING INNOVATIONS IN A 400 MTPD NATURAL GAS STEAM REFORMING AMMONIA PLANT

Objetivo

Production of 400 MTPD ammonia at world-wide competitive price in natural gas steam reforming plant by making use for the first time of innovatory, energy saving technologies which reduce the overall energy consumption to the record low level of 7.2 Gcal x 10 M and 222 KWh per metric tonne of ammonia produced, thus making it possible to exploit commercially the available limited amounts of the associated and natural gas of the Prinos oil and gas fields in Northern Greece and other small deposits which are very likely to be discovered in this country and other Community areas.

Innovative aspects of the project are as follows:
- in the hydrogen production section, waste gas, which was formally flared, is used as a fuel to the reformer by using a computer controlled gas surging/mixing/burning system.
- preliminary compression of a part of the required nitrogen is achieved by adding a new stage in the hydrogen purification unit and by using the residual energy of the feed gas.
- in the ammonia synthesis section an extra 0.25 tons of high pressure steam are produced per ton of ammonia by using a novel heat exchanger designed for higher temperatures (500 DEG.C.) and pressures (300 BAR).
Process description: natural gas, or a limited quantity of vapourised lpg, is the basic feedstock for the production of ammonia. The process steps can be grouped into 3 stages;
- the production of hydrogen from the feedstock gas: the basic steps in the production of hydrogen from hydrocarbons is steam reforming at elevated temperatures in the presence of a nickel catalyst. This catalyst is suseptible to sulphur poisoning so that it is necessary to remove the sulphur components from the feed gas. This is done in two steps. First the bulk of it is removed by regenerative adsorption followed by non-regenerative absorption of hydrogen sulphide, obtained by catalytic conversion. The steam reforming step is followed by the conversion of carbon monoxide to hydrogen. This is called shift conversion. After cooling and separation of condensate, the raw hydrogen is purified by a pressure swing adsorption unit.
- The production of pure nitrogen: this is obtained by seperation of air at low temperature. The air is first compressed and then all traces of water and carbon dioxide are removed. The air then enters the cold box and liuid nitrogen is drawn off and compressed.
- Ammonia synthesis: this takes place in the presence of an iron catalyst at high temperature and pressure. On a once-through basis the conversion to ammonia is far from complete so it is necessary to return the unconverted hydrogen and nitrogen to the ammonia converter after seperation of the produced ammonia by liquifaction. The synthesis of ammonia is an exothermic reaction; the heat of the reaction is recovered and used to generate steam which is combined with the steam for the hydrogen production unit.
The plant should use 28% less electricity and 3% less other fuel per ton of ammonia produced.

Convocatoria de propuestas

Data not available

Régimen de financiación

DEM - Demonstration contracts

Coordinador

PHOSPHORIC FERTILIZERS INDUSTRY
Aportación de la UE
Sin datos
Dirección
ATHINAS STREET 67
10552 Athens
Grecia

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Coste total
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