Nitrogen projects and licensors

NITROGEN PROJECT REPORT

Nitrogen projects and licensors

Following the publication of the 2020 nitrogen project listing by our sister magazine Nitrogen+Syngas, we profile a selection of leading nitrogen projects and their process licensors. Australia, Egypt, India, Nigeria and Russia have been key countries for new project developments.

Stamicarbon urea pool reactor plant.

PHOTO: STAMICARBON

AUSTRALIA

Contracts agreed for Karratha project

Haldor Topsoe entered into a technology licensing and engineering contract with Perdaman Chemicals and Fertilisers at the end of last year for a new ammonia-urea plant in Karratha, Western Australia.

Perdaman is planning to build a two million tonne capacity urea plant on the Burrup Peninsula, some 20 kilometres north-west of Karratha on the northwest coastline of Western Australia. The AUD four billion project will use local natural gas as a feedstock for fertiliser production, and incorporates innovative and low-emissions technologies.

The Karratha project’s 3,500 t/d ammonia plant will be the largest single-train unit in the world, when completed. Construction is expected to start this year, although go ahead is still subject to a final investment decision.

The Karratha project, which has a guaranteed gas supply, has made significant progress over the last two years. SNC-Lavalin was named as the project’s engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor in November 2018. Stamicarbon has also come on board as the project’s urea technology licensor, with the company’s LAUNCH MELT™ pool condenser design being selected for urea production.

Topsoe is licensing its SynCOR Ammonia™ technology for the project. This is company’s latest technology for large-scale ammonia production. It incorporates single-step autothermal reforming and is capable of reducing steam throughput by 80 percent.

According to Topsoe, SynCOR Ammonia™ technology will deliver major economic and operational benefits for Karratha’s large-scale ammonia plant.

“This is a significant step forward for the Karratha urea project. We are now full steam ahead on this important project that will use the latest and best technologies available. We expect Haldor Topsoe’s innovative technology to deliver significant economies of scale that will contribute to making this world-scale plant exceptionally competitive,” said Vikas Rambal, founding chairman and managing director, Perdaman Group.

Chris Brown, SNC Lavalin’s president for oil & gas, said the company was pleased to be part of this important Australian project. “Our vast experience in delivering major projects that involve constructing state of the art technology will be vital in bringing this project to completion over the next four years,” he said.

Karratha has been awarded ‘Project of State Significance’ status by the WA State Government. Project construction is conditional on environmental approval

EGYPT

Aswan nitrogen complex completed

The new Egyptian Chemical Industries (KIMA) nitrogen complex at Aswan has now been completed and is ready to enter production, according to the company. The new $770 million complex has the capacity to produce 900 t/d of ammonia, 1,200 t/d of urea, and 300 t/d of ammonium nitrate (both low and high density). Full-scale commercial production was expected to start in April, following the successful completion of trial operations.

Tecnimont and tkIS secure Ain Sokhna contracts

Maire Tecnimont signed a $550 million engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract with Egypt Hydrocarbon Corporation (EHC) at the end of last year for a new ammonia plant at Ain Sokhna, near Suez.

Nitrogen project listing 2020 for Australia, Egypt, India, Nigeria and Russia

Note: this is an extract from the full global 2020 nitrogen project listing published in our sister magazine Nitrogen+Syngas in March this year (Nitrogen+Syngas 364, p 28).

KEY

BE: Basic engineering

C: Completed/commissioning

CA: Contract awarded

DE: Design engineering

FS: Feasibility study

n.a.: Information not available

P: Planned/proposed

RE: Revamp

UC: Under construction

Conversion:

1 t/d of hydrogen = 464 Nm/h

1 t/d of natural gas = 1,400 Nm/d 3 3

The 1,320 t/d ammonia plant will feed an existing ammonium nitrate plant at the site. It will operate using KBR-licensed technology and should be completed within three years, once formal go ahead is given.

Pierroberto Folgiero, Maire Tecnimont Group CEO, said: “We are very happy to expand our footprint in Egypt in our fertilizers core business, leveraging our long-term relationships with the Egypt Hydrocarbon Corporation.”

Germany’s thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions (tkIS) secured a separate contract to construct a new nitrogen fertilizer complex at Ain Sokna for Egypt’s Nasr Company for Intermediate Chemicals (NCIC) earlier in 2019.

The two companies signed the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract in Cairo in March last year. The major order is said to be valued in the “mid-three digit million euro range”.

The new complex is located at Ain El Sokhna, around 100 km southeast of Cairo, close to NCIC’s existing phosphate and compound fertilizer complex. It will produce up to 440,000 t/a of ammonia, 380,000 t/a of urea and 300,000 t/a of calcium ammonium nitrate (CAN).

The new Ain El Sokhna complex is part of a plan by NCIC to expand its current product portfolio to include high-quality nitrogen fertilizers – and manufacture these for both domestic consumption and the export market. The complex will be completed and enter production in 2022 under current plans.

“We have a particularly successful partnership with Egypt stretching back more than 160 years which offers great potential for the future. Our longstanding experience in plant construction, our strong local presence and close collaboration with our customers form the basis for our success and strong market position in the region,” said Marcel Fasswald, the CEO of tkIS.

“To date, we have planned and built 16 of the 17 existing nitrogen fertilizer plants in the country and are delighted that another state-of-the-art plant will now be added,” added Ralf Richmann, CEO of the company’s fertilizer & syngas technologies business unit. thyssenkrupp will deliver the project as part of a consortium with the Egyptian company Petrojet. Stamicarbon is the project’s urea process licensor.

INDIA

KBR supplies technology to Talcher project

KBR is supplying ammonia synthesis technology to the Talcher ammonia-urea project in India.

It secured the Talcher contract from Wuhuan Engineering Co, the project’s EPC contractor at the beginning of the year. KBR will provide the technology license, basic engineering design, catalyst, and proprietary process equipment for the project’s ammonia plant. Stamicarbon has also been selected as the technology provider for the project’s urea plant

Talcher is a flagship coal-to-urea project for India. It is a central part of government efforts to reduce the country’s import reliance by increasing domestic urea capacity. The project is owned by Talcher Fertilizer Limited (TFL), a joint venture between a number of Indian public sector companies.

The Talcher project is a particularly pioneering venture as no other operational urea plants in India are based on coal gasification technology at present.

“We are proud to be part of this significant project in India,” said Doug Kelly, KBR president, technology solutions. “KBR’s ammonia synthesis process will deliver flexibility, reliability, and cost competitiveness to Talcher for years to come.”

China’s Wuhuan Engineering Co was awarded the contract to build a coal-based urea plant at Talcher in Odisha state in 2019. The lump sum turnkey contract commits the company to building the $1.85 billion urea plant by September 2023.

The Talcher plant will convert 2.5 million t/a of coal and 0.35 million t/a of petcoke into syngas. This intermediary will then be used to manufacture ammonia and ultimately 1.27 million t/a of urea.

Attending the contract signing ceremony, oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan said: “The Talcher fertilizer plant was shut down in 1999 due to financial losses. Twenty years later, we have handed over work order for revival of the same.”

The Talcher project is essentially a plant re-opening rather than a completely new venture. The Indian government wants to boost domestic urea capacity by reviving the previously-closed fertilizer operations of Fertilizer Corporation of India Ltd (FCIL). It has placed joint venture company TFL in charge of delivering the project.

TFL has been allotted the northern part of North Arkhapal mine as a captive source of coal for the project. Petcoke will be sourced from the Indian Oil Corporation’s Paradip refinery.

The successful implementation of coal-based urea technology at Talcher should have benefits for the Indian coal industry by demonstrating the suitability of high-ash Indian coal in areas other than conventional power production.

Ramagundam plant enters production

The Ramagundam urea plant was expected to complete commissioning and begin commercial urea production by the end of March, according to its owners Ramagundam Fertilizers and Chemicals Ltd (RFCL).

The plant’s gas supply pipeline from Kakinada is now operational and its flare stack was also recently commissioned.

The plant will be the first of the previously closed state-owned fertilizer plants In India to be brought back on-line. A number of plants are being revamped and upgraded as part of the Indian government’s ambitions for self-sufficiency in urea production.

RFCL was formed as a joint venture between six partners in 2015. National Fertilizers Ltd (NFL) and Engineers India Ltd both have a 26 percent stake. Other partners include the Gas Association of India Ltd (14.3%), HTAS Consortium (11.7%), the Fertilizer Corporation of India Ltd (11%) and the government of Telangana (11%).

The new plant’s foundation stone was laid by India’s prime minister Narendra Modi in August 2016.

Casale secures major nitrate order

Casale is the contractor for a major new technical ammonium nitrate complex in India.

The contract was awarded by Smartchem Technologies Limited (STL) in 2019, a fully-owned subsidiary of Deepak Fertilisers and Petrochemicals Corporation Limited (DFPCL). Under the terms of the contract, Casale will supply process licenses, know-how, basic design and proprietary equipment to the complex, together with on-site assistance.

The planned complex includes the following three production units:

• 900 t/d nitric acid plant based on Casale’s proprietary NA2000 dual-pressure process
• 1,143 t/d ammonium nitrate solution plant incorporating Casale’s AN2000 pipe reactor technology
• 970 t/d prilling unit able to produce either high density ammonium nitrate (HDAN), based on Casale technology, or low density ammonium nitrate (LDAN), based on newly-acquired ORICA technology.

The project will fully-utilise equipment mothballed, but never used, from another project in a different region.

NIGERIA

Dangote plant in pre-commissioning

Dangote’s large-scale urea-ammonia complex near Lagos, Nigeria, has finally entered pre-commissioning, the company has confirmed.

The giant fertilizer complex is located in the Lekki Free Zone close to Nigeria’s Atlantic seaboard, and has the capacity to produce 2.6 million tonnes of granulated urea annually.

The project to complete the $2 billion complex is now in its final stages and approaching completion. Italy’s Saipem is constructing the plant, being the project’s engineering, procurement and supervision contractor. Tata Consulting Engineers of India are acting as project management consultants.

Virtually every section of the urea production complex – including the central control room, ammonia and urea bulk storage, cooling tower, power generation plant and granulation plant – is now complete and are going through pre-testing.

The project is also receiving its gas feedstock. The fertilizer plant is being supplied with 70 MMscf/d of natural gas from the Nigerian Gas Company and Chevron Nigeria Ltd under a gas sale and purchase agreement.

Products from the fertilizer plant will save Nigeria $500 million by import substitution and generate $400 million in exports, according to Dangote Group executive director Devakumar Edwin.

“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,” Edwin said, adding: “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 new Dangote plant] are 1.6 million t/a.”

The dual-train plant will be the largest fertilizer production plant in Africa, having the capacity to produce 2.6 million t/a of urea and 1.5 million t/a of ammonia.

The Lekki fertilizer plant is just one part of Dangote’s massive Lekki integrated petrochemical complex. The company is investing $12 billion overall constructing a 650,000 barrel per day crude distillation unit, a 3.6 million t/a polypropylene plant, and installations able to process three billion cubic feet per day of natural gas.

The plant, which was originally targeting completion in the first quarter of 2018, is being built to the following specification:

• Ammonia plants: 2 x 2,200 t/d based on Haldor Topsoe technology
• Urea melt plants: 2 x 3,850 t/d based on Saipem’s Snamprogetti technology
• Urea granulation plants: 2 x 3,850 t/d based on Uhde Fertilizer Technology
• Dedicated power plant: 3 x 40 MW steam turbine generators
• Auxiliary boilers: 3 x 200 t/h steam generation
• EPC contractor: Saipem, Italy, and Saipem Construction Nigeria
• PMC contractor: Tata Consulting Engineers, India

PHOTO: SAIPEM

Saipem: flexible urea plant technology

Saipem’s Snamprogetti™ Urea Technology is today licensed to almost 140 urea plants worldwide. This urea plant technology provides added-value, both in terms of the time savings it offers operators, and its ease of integration with other production units – either within a new complex or in the expansion of an existing one.

Operational flexibility valued

Snamprogetti™ technology provides operational flexibility and the ability to isolate the urea reactor, two qualities that are particularly prized by Saipem customers. Urea plant flexibility, particularly the ability to operate at both high and low loads, means it is possible to adjust plant load in response to market demand or feedstock variations – without the need for time wasting, costly and energy-consuming shut-downs. In the eventuality of a shut-down, the option to contain the urea and carbamate solution within the urea reactor for a number of days also helps, as this limits economic losses by permitting a fast restart of the plant.

Coping with start-up problems

The ability of the Snamprogetti™ process to adapt promptly to variations in operating conditions, without affecting the overall performances and safety of the plant, allows urea plants to remain in operation even when all the vessels and tanks are almost full with carbamate solution, in excess of specification.

These features of Saipem’s urea technology proved to be of fundamental importance and value in the first days of operation during the start-up of a new fertilizer complex. As the operators were familiarising themselves with the plant’s behaviour, an improper response to changes in operating parameters led to the ‘popping’ of a pressure safety valve (PSV).

Operating satisfactorily

The urea plant was able to continue operating satisfactorily after the popping of the PSV. The plant was repeatedly shut-down shortly after the PSV popping incident due to complex external factors linked to utilities and the upstream and downstream sections. Nevertheless, thanks to the flexibility of Snamprogetti™ technology, the production of finished urea continued, recovering carbamate solutions that had previously accumulated in various vessels.

The above scenario demonstrates the value of operational flexibility, and the ability to self-contain the urea reactor, as the Snamprogetti™ process enabled low load runs and fast start-ups, while at the same time returning operating conditions and vessel inventories to normal.

Dangote Group is a diverse industrial conglomerate operating across 10 African countries, generating annual revenues of around $3 billion from its major interests in the cement, agriculture, food processing, oil & gas and power sectors. Dangote has invested $7 billion in Nigerian industry in the last five years, equivalent to around 10 percent of the country’s total direct foreign investment. Its current investment pipeline, for various Nigerian projects at different stages, totals more than $23 billion.

Part of the output from Dangote’s new urea plant will be dedicated to its growing farming business. The Group is planning to expand sugar cane and rice cultivation in Nigeria to around 300,000 hectares, raising its annual fertilizer requirement to 150,000 tonnes.

Although current domestic consumption represents a relatively small fraction of Nigeria’s installed urea capacity, there is potential for this to grow significantly, in Dangote’s view. The company suggests that Nigeria’s total domestic fertilizer consumption could eventually grow to 1.7-2.9 million tonnes annually under some scenarios, up from around one million tonnes currently. Such an eventuality could see Nigeria’s urea consumption rise from under 400,000 tonnes annually currently to 0.9-1.4 million tonnes.

Port Harcourt expansion targets 2021 competition

Indorama Eleme Fertiliser and Chemicals Ltd is aiming to complete construction on its second world-scale ammonia-urea production line next year. The second line will effectively double Indorama’s urea capacity to 2.8 million t/a at its Port Harcourt complex by duplicating the 1.4 million t/a capacity of the existing line production line.

Indorama secured the $1 billion finance package for the ‘Eleme II’ project in 2018 from a consortium of banks led by the International Finance Corporation (IFC). The IFC will directly lend Indorama $100 million and mobilise additional loans worth $850 million from other financial institutions and commercial banks. A further $50 million in financing will be provided by IFC’s Managed Co-Lending Portfolio Program (Fertilizer International 485, p10).

The Eleme II project has been under construction for two years. Bukola Saraki, the president of Nigeria’s senate, laid the foundation stone at an official groundbreaking ceremony in July 2018.

Toyo (TEC) was awarded the contract to build the second urea-ammonia line at Port Harcourt, replicating its work on the original production line. Toyo is also the urea technology licensor (ACES21® ) for Eleme II, as well as being responsible for the project’s basic design, detail engineering, procurement and commissioning services. KBR will provide the technology licensing, basic engineering design, proprietary equipment and the catalyst for Port Harcourt’s second ammonia plant.

“Nigeria has become a major hub for urea exports. With Line 2, we aim to further expand our ability to provide competitively-priced and high-quality fertilizer to farmers in West Africa and across the globe,” said Manish Mundra, CEO, Indorama Africa.

“This project will increase… the domestic supply of urea fertilizer in Nigeria, making it easily available and leading to cheaper prices for the Nigerian farmer,” said Abdu Mukhtar, industrial and trade development director at the African Development Bank. “It will also… create high paying technical jobs and will count towards climate change abatement by reducing amounts of flared gas.”

Large volumes of natural gas are wasted in Nigeria due to gas flaring. Nigeria has flared 750 million cubic feet per day of associated gas over the past three years, according to the World Bank. Downstream use of this gas for basic chemicals and fertilizer production will reduce flaring, a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change.

RUSSIA

New Kingisepp plant contract

Maire Tecnimont signed a memorandum of intent with EuroChem Group for a new Russian nitrogen plant late last year.

The two companies signed an early works contract for a potential new urea and ammonia plant in October. This will be located next to EuroChem’s existing Kingisepp nitrogen complex in northwest Russia, close to the Baltic Sea.

Under the terms of the agreement, Tecnimont will carry out preliminary engineering and surveying work at the industrial site. But a definite go-ahead for the plant still awaits a final investment decision by EuroChem.

“We are pleased to take the next step toward considering building this world scale plant, with Maire Tecnimont, a company that we have worked with closely for many years,” said Petter Ostbo, Euro-Chem’s CEO. “Expansion of production facilities is a strategic goal for us and part of the next chapter in our growth story.”

“We are eager to keep on supporting a prestigious client such as EuroChem in its long-term expansion plan,” said Pierroberto Folgiero, Maire Tecnimont’s CEO. “This important project reinforces our position in the fertilizer business, and confirms further our long-lasting industrial footprint in Russia.”

EuroChem officially opened EuroChem Northwest, its new ammonia plant at Kingisepp, in June last year. EuroChem Northwest took three years to develop and was constructed by two Maire Tecnimont subsidiaries, Tecnimont SpA and Tecnimont Russia. It produces ammonia using KBR’s proprietary Purifier™ process.

The $1 billion plant is Europe’s largest single ammonia production unit, with an annual capacity of just under one million tonnes (Fertilizer International 489, p15). Around three-quarters of its output will supply EuroChem fertilizer production plants in Antwerp, Belgium, Lifosa in Lithuania, and Phosphorit, the Group’s adjacent phosphate fertilizer complex at Kingisepp. The remaining 25 percent will be sold to third parties.

Construction of the world-scale plant required more than 12,000 tonnes of steel and the installation of more than 64 kilometres of piling. Over 5,000 on-site workers were involved in the plant’s construction at its peak. EuroChem Northwest will permanently employ 300 local people now that it has opened.

ShchekinoAzot urea plant contract

Netherlands-based Stamicarbon entered into a urea plant contract with Russian producer ShchekinoAzot last year.

The contract covers technology licensing, the process design package (PDP) and the supply of proprietary equipment for a new urea melt and granulation plant at Pervomayskiy in Russia’s Tula region.

The 2,000 t/d capacity plant will use Stamicarbon’s Pool Reactor Design and Flash Design. The plant’s Safurex® high-pressure stripper and pool reactor will also be equipped with a radar-level measurement system. The granulation plant at the site will use Stamicarbon’s Optimized Granulation Design and the MicroMistVenturi Scrubber ™ technology.

Casale builds third urea plant for TOAZ

TogliattiAzot (TOAZ) has selected Casale to build a new 2,200 t/d urea plant.

This will be the third urea line at TOAZ’s Togliatti site in Russia’s Samara region. Casale is providing TOAZ with proprietary know-how, all of the project engineering, and the supply of offshore equipment and materials.

The ground-breaking ceremony for the plant’s construction was held in October last year. The new line will be constructed alongside the two existing plants and will increase total urea production at the site by 70 percent. Casale’s sister company, Prague-based Casale Project AS, will supply all the onshore equipment and be responsible for on-site construction.

Completion of the new urea line for TOAZ is expected in the second quarter of 2021. It is Casale’s third Russian plant order in two years.

Tecnimont constructs KuibyshevAzot urea plant

Tecnimont is the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor for the Volgafert granulated urea plant.

The new 540,000 t/a capacity urea plant, sited at the KuibyshevAzot industrial complex, Tolyatti, in Russia’s Samara region, will use Stamicarbon technology.

Under the terms of the e200 million contract, Tecnimont is providing engineering services, equipment and materials, and construction services to the project. It will be responsible for all project activities up to commissioning and start-up, and will also perform a final test run at the granulated urea plant.

Volgafert will produce and market high-quality urea for the domestic and export market. The company is mainly owned by Russian fertilizer producer Kuibyshevazot. METDEV1, a company owned by Maire Tecnimont, also has a minority stake in Volgafert. Simest S.p.A., part of Italian investment bank CDP Group, is another participant.

To finance the whole project, a credit line of e160 million from international banks is currently being finalised. This will be guaranteed by Italian export credit agency SACE, also part of CDP Group.

Pierroberto Folgiero, Maire Tecnimont Group’s CEO said: “We are eager to strategically cooperate with a prestigious industry leader such as KuibyshevAzot in one of our core business areas, fertilizers. With this new collaboration we confirm the reliability of our Group’s value proposition covering the whole value chain, from project development, to licensing to complete EPC execution.”

Acron opens new urea unit

Acron Group commissioned a new 600 t/d urea unit at its Veliky Novgorod site in November.

Known as Urea-600, this is Acron’s sixth urea production unit at the site. Acron upgraded its five other production units in parallel with the construction of Urea-600.An advanced integrated wastewater treatment plant was also successfully commissioned at the Novgorod site as part of the Urea-600 project.

The successful commissioning of Urea600 increases urea production capacity at Veliky Novgorod to 3,800 t/d, equivalent to an annual production capacity of 1.3 million tonnes.

The new two billion rouble production unit is based on NIIK’s patented URE-CON2006 ® technology. This is the first time a new urea unit has been commissioned based on this technology, according to NIIK.

The URECON2006 ® process incorporates improved liquid recycle technology. It has been successfully used for revamping low capacity units previously. The process offers highly efficient heat and mass transfer. One of the most important features of the technology, according to NIIK, is the single high-pressure vessel used as a urea synthesis reactor.

In November, Acron also awarded Stamicarbon a licensing and equipment supply contracts for a new 2,000 t/d urea granulation plant at Velikiy Novgorod. The plant will use the latest proprietary granulation technology offered by Stamicarbon.

“Acron has decided to expand its product portfolio by including granulated urea which is popular among clients. Cooperation with Stamicarbon, the technology leader in the industry, ensures us advanced technologies for manufacturing top-quality product,” said Acron’s chairman, Alexander Popov.