Nitrogen+Syngas 364 Mar-Apr 2020
31 March 2020
Nitrogen Industry News
Nitrogen Industry News
NETHERLANDS
Topsoe launches TITAN steam reforming catalyst series
At the Nitrogen+Syngas Conference 2020, held in The Hague, Netherlands, Haldor Topsoe launched its new TITAN ™ series of steam reforming catalysts. The company says that the new series, which consists of the RC-67 TITAN and RK-500 TITAN catalysts, offers improved performance and longer catalyst lifetime thanks to the hibonite-rich composition. The addition of titanium promoters adds exceptional mechanical strength while a seven-hole cylindrical shape yields both a very low pressure drop and a high surface area. Pressure drop build-ups in syngas plants can cause unscheduled downtime and cost millions of dollars, while thermal instability during operation can lead to operational risk and reduce plant lifetime. Topsoe says that the catalysts can mitigate these risks, ensuring lower operating costs, increased profit margins, and reduced energy usage.
UNITED STATES
IFA holds first Global Stewardship Conference
From February 3rd to 7th, IFA welcomed 170 leaders from the international fertilizer industry and the wider business community to New York City to discuss innovative stewardship initiatives, learn more about sustainability reporting, get inspired by sustainability programs within the fertilizer industry, and understand expectations from the UN, finance and NGO communities. The IFA Global Stewardship Conference was opened by Mostafa Terrab, IFA and OCP Chairperson, who welcomed CEOs, Safety, Health and Environment experts, agronomists and public affairs professionals from fertilizer producers and distributors from around the world, alongside prominent experts from intergovernmental organizations and NGOs, policymakers, academia, business and engineering to take a comprehensive look at corporate SDG implementation.
The event covered all aspects of industry stewardship. At the level of fertilizer production, innovations and investments in energy and water efficiency, CO 2 and other emission reductions, were presented. With regard to fertilizer application, critical outcomes of the most recent UN reports and resolutions for phosphorus and nitrogen production and application management were examined and the positive contribution of fertilizers in terms of soil health and biodiversity, as were efforts to continuously improve nutrient use efficiency and minimize nutrient losses to the environment in order to help meet challenges facing agrifood systems.
Many of the external speakers saw the fertilizer industry having a crucial role to play in enabling more sustainable agriculture. “Our food system is bankrupting our healthcare system and the fertilizer industry is critical for addressing this,” said Roy Steiner, Senior VP of Food at the Rockefeller Foundation, while Ann Tutwiler of the Meridian Institute and SystemIQ explained how agrobiodiversity can mitigate climate change risks and saw the fertilizer industry playing a major role in helping countries to implement it.
With regards to sustainable production, Peter Levi, a leading energy analyst at the International Energy Agency, thanked IFA for its input into the development of a Nitrogen Technology Roadmap, which will outline ways to significantly improve the industry’s energy efficiency and reduce its carbon footprint. Following on, the renowned industry analyst Trevor Brown explained how green ammonia is increasingly becoming a contributor to achieving that long-term goal. IFFCO
“As the fertilizer industry takes an increasingly holistic approach to stewardship, we were delighted to have had such prestigious speakers, as well as a wide range of excellent presentations from IFA members from across the world detailing their impressive sustainability initiatives,” said IFA Director-General Charlotte Hebebrand.
The event reflected the fertilizer industry’s growing focus on sustainability. “Sustainability is business, not something a company does in addition to business,” observed Candace Laing, VP of Sustainability & Stakeholder Relations at Nutrien, while for Tip O’Neill, CEO of IRM, it required investment but “represents a huge market opportunity and leads to measurables returns”. Ben Pratt, VP of Public Affairs at Mosaic, meanwhile, asserted that the industry cannot afford “to step back from social and environmental responsibilities”. Hanane Mourchid, Senior VP of the Sustainability Platform at OCP highlighted the importance of addressing all internal and external stakeholders to spread and raise awareness of the SDGs.
Industry representatives also spoke of the increasing emphasis of the financial community on ESG reporting and called for a harmonized approach to reporting in order to ensure comprehensive, comparable and meaningful reporting. The sustainable production and application of fertilizers supports sustainable food systems and mitigates climate change. “I am optimistic that through capital deployment, accelerated innovation and courageous leadership, the fertilizer industry will deliver in collaboration with communities and citizens” said Devry Boughner Vorwerk, CEO of DevryBV.
Gulf Coast Ammonia to proceed with world-scale plant
Gulf Coast Ammonia LLC closed project financing for its new 3,600 t/d (1.3 million t/a) world-scale ammonia plant in Texas in January. The company is building at a brownfield site in Texas City, Texas, and says that construction will begin soon with commissioning expected in 1H 2023. Capital for the project is being provided by a joint venture of Starwood Energy Group and Mabanaft GmbH. The plant will purchase hydrogen and nitrogen gases locally as feedstock, leading to significant cost savings by avoiding a reforming section. Haldor Topsoe is licensing its ammonia technology for the project, which will be the world’s largest single train ammonia synthesis plant. Gulf Coast says that it has secured long-term offtake contracts for the majority of its production capacity and long-term supply agreements for its feedstock.
Ken Koye, Gulf Coast Ammonia’s CEO, said, “I am pleased to have played a leading role in advising on the commercial structuring and development of this significant addition to the development partners’ business in North America. I look forward to delivering the completed project and associated infrastructure as a safe, reliable and responsible addition to the industrial base in Texas City. This new world-class facility will meet domestic and global demands for nitrogen-based fertilizers to improve crop production and yields to feed the world’s growing population, as well as specialty chemical production on the Texas Gulf Coast.”
NORWAY
Vessel to run on ammonia-powered fuel cell
A maritime innovation project looking to install the world’s first ammonia-powered fuel cell on a vessel has been awarded e10m funding from the European Union. The ShipFC project is being run by a consortium of 14 European companies and institutions, co-ordinated by the Norwegian cluster organisation NCE Maritime Clean-Tech, and has been awarded backing from the EU’s Research and Innovation programme Horizon 2020 under its Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH JU).
The project will see an offshore vessel, Viking Energy, which is owned and operated by Eidesvik and on contract to energy major Equinor, have a large 2MW ammonia fuel cell retrofitted, allowing it to sail solely on the fuel for up to 3,000 hours annually. As such the project aims to demonstrate that long-range zero-emission voyages with high power on larger ships is possible.
The goal is also to ensure that a large fuel cell can deliver total electric power to shipboard systems safely and effectively. This is the first time an ammonia-powered fuel-cell has been installed on a vessel. A significant part of the project will be the scale up of a 100-kilowatt fuel cell to 2 MW. The fuel cell is being tested on land in a parallel project and development and construction will be undertaken by Prototech. Testing will be executed at the Sustainable Energy Norwegian Catapult Centre. The ship-side ammonia system will be supplied by Wärtsilä. The ammonia fuel cell system will be installed in Viking Energy in late 2023.
Norwegian crop nutrition company Yara has been contracted to supply the green ammonia for the project, which will be produced by electrolysis and delivered to Viking Energy containerised to enable easy and safe refuelling. Another part of the ShipFC project will perform studies on three other vessel types, namely offshore construction vessels and two cargo vessel types, to illustrate the ability to transfer this technology to other segments of the shipping industry. The three test cases will look at the ability to transfer the technology to other vessels, which has led to North Sea Shipping, Capital-Executive Ship Management and Star Bulk Ship Management also being part of the consortium.
UNITED KINGDOM
Royal Society endorses ammonia for shipping, district heating and storage
Converting high carbon diesel engines in ships to run on clean ammonia would slash carbon emissions, according to a report from the world’s oldest scientific institution. The UK-based Royal Society says in a policy briefing published in February that ‘green’ ammonia could also fuel district heating and provide energy storage. The briefing argues that chilled ammonia made with green electricity can easily be adopted as a fuel, and pumped over existing pipes and distribution infrastructure. Converting marine diesel engines to power bulk cargo carriers would be relatively cheap and simple, researchers suggest. The world’s diesel-powered shipping fleets account for 2% of global greenhouse emissions; as much as the entire German economy.
Widely used in fertilizers, explosives, drugs and refrigerants, ammonia has been pondered as a replacement for diesel, but rejected due to its high CO2 emissions when made conventionally. Ammonia production now accounts for 1.8% of global GHGs, the Royal Society notes. However, the falling costs of green electricity needed to produce ammonia, plus the lower costs of storing carbon dioxide underground from conventional production could open up opportunities for ‘green’ or ‘blue’ (conventional production with carbon capture and storage) ammonia. Diesel engine builders are reporting interest in ammonia-powered conversions. One, Man Energy Solutions, hopes to have a new purpose-designed ammonia engine available to shipbuilders by 2024.
BOLIVIA
Urea plant could be moved
The Bolivian government has said that Bolivia’s troubled ammonia-urea plant at Bulo Bulo could be moved to a “more profitable” location closer to the Brazilian border. Speaking to local media, hydrocarbons minister Víctor Hugo Zamora described the $1 billion project as the “worst political whim” of former president Evo Morales’ government. “How are we going to put a plant more than 1,000 km from the principal market, which is Brazil?” state news agency ABI quoted Zamora as saying. However, the local state of Cochabamba’s energy and hydrocarbons industrial development director Mario Apaza said in response that the relocation would not be viable due to lack of raw materials, and that the move could cost around 60% of the plant’s capital cost.
The plant started up in January 2018, and has a nominal capacity of 1,200 t/d of ammonia and 2,100 t/d of urea, but according to Zamora, the plant has operated at less than 10% of capacity. In 2019, the plant’s average urea production was 900 t/d, impacted by the distance to potential markets and poor natural gas supply from declining fields, with no output for 136 days. At the same time, global urea prices have slumped to below $250/t. Losses for 1H 2019 were $6 million. Attempts to improve rail connectivity by building a railway to Montero to interconnect with the eastern rail network remain unfinished in spite of having begun work in 2013, meaning that urea must be shipped by truck from the facility. The plant remains closed during revamp work which is expected to last for three months.
AUSTRALIA
Dyno Nobel to pilot renewable ammonia production
Explosives manufacturer Dyno Nobel, part of the Incitec Pivot group, says that it will test the feasibility of manufacturing ammonia using renewable energy at its Moranbah site in Queensland. The company has received a A$980,000 grant from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) to examine the feasibility of renewable hydrogen production at its ammonia, nitric acid and ammonium nitrate facility. The project aims to substitute renewable hydrogen for natural gas as feedstock and simultaneously increase production while reducing CO2 emissions. The study will be study the scope and cost of the required plant upgrade using methane and renewable hydrogen as alternative feedstocks. Incitec Pivot’s Moranbah site is one of six ammonia plants operated by the company, with a capacity of 330,000 t/a of ammonia.
ARENA said in a statement: “The study will evaluate if a feasible project can be developed with hydrogen produced from zero-emission electrolysis and supplied at a price that is cost competitive to alternatives. It will determine the cost of hydrogen electrolysis equipment at industrial scale (of >100 MW) and the strategy to manage electrical and hydrogen supply variability, and determine the economics of solar-only, behind-the-meter power generation for renewable hydrogen production.”
NIGERIA
Dangote plant in pre-commissioning phase
Dangote Fertilizer Ltd has begun pre-commissioning of its $2 billion granulated urea fertilizer complex. The urea complex, in the Dangote Free Zone, has a capacity of 3.0 million t/a. The engineering, procurement and supervision contractor for the project is Saipem, with project management consultancy from Tata Consulting Engineers of India. Dangote said in a press statement that virtually all the section of the plant such as the central control room, ammonia and urea bulk storage, cooling tower, power generation plant and granulation plant, have been completed and are going through pre-testing. Gas supply is flowing from the Nigerian Gas Company (NGC) and Chevron Nigeria Ltd (CNL) under a gas sale and purchase agreement to supply 70 MMscf/d of natural gas.
Dangote Group Executive Director, Strategy, Portfolio Development and Capital Projects, Devakumar Edwin, said that Nigeria would be able to save $500 million from import substitution and provide $400 million from exports of products from the fertilizer plant.
“I am happy that by the time our plant is fully commissioned, the country will become self-sufficient in fertilizer production and even have the capacity to export to other African countries. Right now, farmers are forced to utilise whatever fertilizer that is available as they have no choice; but we need to know that the fertilizer that will work in one state may not be suitable in another state, as they may not have the same soil type and composition. The same fertilizer you use for sorghum may not be the fertilizer you will use for sugar cane,” Edwin explained. He added: “By 2020, the Nigerian population is projected to increase to about 207 million, which would lead to increased food requirements. Estimates points out that around five million tonnes of fertilizers are required per year in Nigeria in the next five to seven years – 3.5 million t/a of urea and 1.5 million t/a of NPK, while current production levels in Nigeria [prior to the opening of the Dangote facility] are at 1.6 million t/a.”
SAUDI ARABIA
Saipem agrees Saudi joint venture
Saipem has signed a memorandum of understanding with Saudi construction company Abdel Hadi Abdullah Al Qahtani & Sons Company (AHQ). The companies have agreed to form joint venture in Saudi Arabia, combining Saipem’s EPC competences and skills with AHQ’s knowledge and experience in logistics, construction and supply chain management. The joint venture aims to maximise local value creation and to become a first tier player in the execution of onshore construction and onshore pipeline EPC projects in the Kingdom.
Maurizio Coratella, Chief Operating Officer of the Onshore E&C Division, commented: “Saudi Arabia has been a core market to Saipem from the outset, and our ambition is to maintain our EPC leading role in the country. We are committed to establishing this joint venture together with AHQ with the aim of harnessing synergies to support our key client Saudi Aramco. A central feature of the partnership is the possibility to operate in compliance with the requirements of the IKTVA (In-Kingdom Total Value Added) program launched by Saudi Aramco as an integral part of its contracts to achieve 70% localisation of spending by 2021”.
RUSSIA
EuroChem inks credit facility with Roseximbank
EuroChem has closed a $87 million export credit facility with the Russian Export-Import Bank (Roseximbank), in conjunction with the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade. The loan agreement has a two-year limit and will finance the export of liquid ammonia from the firm’s new $1 billion EuroChem Northwest ammonia plant in Kingisepp, to international customers, according to the company. Although most of the ammonia from Kingisepp will be used in EuroChem’s own plants in Belgium, Lithuania and Russia, the EuroChem says that around 25% of the plant’s output will be sold to other customers in Europe.
UKRAINE
Severodonetsk triples fertilizer output
PrJSC Severodonetsk Azot, part of Dmytro Firtash’s Group DF says that it tripled its production of fertilizers in 2019, following the start-up of the company’s new UAN unit. Reporting its production for 2019, Severodonetsk said that its output of ammonium nitrate was 371,660 tonnes, sales of ammonia solutions were 1,650 tonnes, and production of non-concentrated nitric acid was 296,200 tonnes.
Chairman of the board Leonid Buhayev said: “The large-scale and important project for us over the year was the start of production at the new UAN liquid fertilizer plant. The result is that we produced twice as many UAN as a year earlier.”
As well as its new UAN unit, the company has also overhauled its ammonia refrigeration unit and nitric acid production, steam supply and general communications department.
BAHRAIN
Saipem to conduct feasibility study n expansion plans
Saipem has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Gulf Petrochemical Industries Company (GPIC) for a feasibility study on three main projects in Bahrain. The first would increase GPIC’s daily production of ammonia, urea and methanol by about 15% through debottlenecking and revamping which will also reduce energy consumption and use natural gas. Provisional costing for this is $390 million. The second would be a pre-feasibility study concerning plans to build a new ‘mega’ ammonia and urea plant, with a capacity of 2,200 t/d of ammonia and 3,400 t/d of urea, expected to cost between $1.6 billion and $2.2 billion. Finally, the third aims to determine the quality of gas feedstock in the oil and gas fields discovered in 2018 off the west coast of the kingdom – now the largest in Bahrain. If developed, these oil and gas projects are estimated to cost $1.65 billion. GPIC is a three-way joint venture between Bahrain’s National Oil and Gas Holding Company, Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) and Kuwait’s PIC.
BRAZIL
Petrobras tries again for Tres Lagoas sale
State oil firm Petrobras has launched a new process to sell the UFN-III urea project at Três Lagoas in Mato Grosso do Sul state. The plant, works on which are currently 81% complete, according to Petrobras, will have 2,200 t/d of ammonia and 3,600 t/d of urea capacity when finished. However, a previous attempt to sell the project, as part of Petrobras’ huge $30 billion divestment programme, failed to find a buyer when it was cancelled in 2018. Petrobras had begun exclusive negotiations over the unit with Russian firm Acron, but the talks were unsuccessful and were eventually halted after political turbulence following the resignation of Evo Morales as president in Bolivia, which was supposed to supply natural gas for the project.
EGYPT
KIMA commercial production planned for April
Egyptian Chemical Industries (KIMA), said that the company’s new plant at Aswan is now fully complete. The complex has a capacity of 900 t/d of ammonia, 1,200 t/d of urea, and 300 t/d of ammonium nitrate (both low and high density). Trial operations have reportedly been successfully concluded, and full scale commercial operation is expected for April 2020. Investment cost is put at $770 million, funded by both debt and equity.
