Facility Inspection

Ammoni a Plant

Report

Inspected February, 2009

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Ammonia Plant
Executive Summary

This ammonia plant has an approximate capacity of 850 mt/day of ammonia. It started up with Kellogg technology. It shut down in 2009. The facility is very accessible by road and rail. There is a huge amount of rail system inside the plant. The nearest major port is 120 km away. Expected documentation was observed during the inspection, such as PFDs, P&IDs, procedures, and equipment files. The plant includes a desulfurization unit and two stages of reforming capabilities. The ammonia synthesis converter was upgraded by Ammonia Casale in 1993.

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Ammonia Plant

850 mt/day Ammonia Plant

This plant was licensed by Kellogg of USA and is rated for approximately 850 mt/day of ammonia production.

Natural gas is compressed to 42.5 bar and 390C utilizing a De Laval turbine-driven 2-stage centrifugal compressor driven by 30 bar steam. Sulfur is removed from the natural gas using hydrogen and a cobaltmolybdenum catalyst at 40 bar. The hydrogen sulfide is removed utilizing a zinc oxide catalyst.
Natural Gas Compressor

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1st Stage Reformer

The de-sulfurized natural gas is combined with superheated steam with a molar ratio of 3.5:1 (steam to carbon). This mixture is sent to the primary reformer where it is cracked into synthesis gas using a nickel catalyst. This reaction takes place at 32 bar and 1,100C and converts 90% of the methane. This crude syn-gas is fed with process air to the secondary reformer.

The process air is compressed with a De Laval 2-stage centrifugal compressor with a steam-turbine drive. At 1,000C and 31 bar, the remaining unreacted methane gas is converted to syn-gas. Less than 0.35% of methane by volume remains in the syn-gas after this point.

Process Air Compressor

The next step in the process is the high temperature shift converter, which used iron catalyst to partly convert carbon monoxide to carbon dioxide and hydrogen. The syn-gas stream is at 31 bar and 371C at this point. This stream is then fed to the low temperature shift converter which runs at 240C and 29 bar. It utilizes zinc oxide and copper catalysts to reduce the carbon monoxide content to less than 0.5% by volume. Carbon dioxide is then removed from the syn-gas stream using a Benfield system. The gas is at 82C and 28 bar when it is scrubbed with a hot CARSOL solution of 27% K2CO3, 2% diethanolamine, and 4,000 ppm of vanadium oxide corrosion inhibitor. Carbon dioxide is then removed in two stripping columns and is sent to the urea plant. The absorption column runs at 26 bar and the solvent regeneration column runs at 0.3 bar. The carbon dioxide in the forwarded syn-gas is now less than 0.1% by volume.

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A methanator is used to convert the carbon oxides in the absorber overhead gas back to methane and water vapor utilizing a nickel catalyst. This process runs at 27 bar and 316C, and it reduces the carbon oxide levels down to less than 10 ppm. Ammonia is synthesized using a hydrogen-to-nitrogen molar ratio of 3:1. The syn-gas is compressed to 154 bar using two turbine-driven centrifugal compressors (turbines running on 100 bar and 40 bar steam) and combined with the recycle gas. The ammonia synthesis converter was upgraded by Ammonia Casale in 1993 by modifying the original Kellogg cartridge into the three-bed configuration with a catalyst volume of 68 m3. The converter runs at 450C and 120 bar and utilizes an iron catalyst to convert approximately 15% per pass. The ammonia is compressed using a De Laval 2-stage centrifugal compressor with a steam-turbine drive. The ammonia is then refrigerated utilizing closed circuit ammonia refrigeration compressors. The compressors are manufactured by Lebrum of Belgium. This process runs at -33C, cooling a 15,000 mt carbon steel storage tank. The five cooling tower cells for this plant provide 90,000 m3 of cooling water per hour. There is a large compressor building and a control room/office building. This plant recovers 220 mt/hr of steam at 100 bar from the heat recovery system following the reformers. The plant runs with three operators per shift and utilizes pneumatic controls.
Cooling Towers

There is a 4,500 m3 water tower for emergency cooling in the ammonia plant. This is enough water to provide 45 minutes for operations to safely shut down the ammonia plant. Demolition of the water tower was not included in the demo estimates in this report. There are 43 rail cars available with this plant and dedicated to ammonia.

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