Skip to main content

Nitrogen+Syngas 381 Jan-Feb 2023

Nitrogen + Syngas 2023


CONFERENCE PREVIEW

Nitrogen + Syngas 2023

CRU Events will host the 2023 Nitrogen + Syngas conference and exhibition at the Hyatt Regency Barcelona Tower in Barcelona, 6-8 March.

Sagrada Familia, Barcelona at night.
MR_PIBOON/ISTOCKPHOTO.COM

CRU has recently announced the agenda for CRU’s 36th Nitrogen + Syngas conference and exhibition which will be held as a live, in-person event in Barcelona on 6-8 March 2023. This highly respected annual technical event for the global nitrogen and syngas community provides an important platform for technical professionals from across the nitrogen and syngas industries to connect, do business and learn about the latest developments in operations, technology, process and equipment. The meeting attracts a truly global audience of producers, licensors and materials and equipment providers from around the world, facilitating business networking and peer-to-peer knowledge sharing.

The extensive technical agenda showcases the latest technology, process, materials and equipment developments that are driving operational efficiency, sustainability and reliability for nitrogen and syngas producers. The 2023 agenda will feature three content tracks with a record 63 technical papers and will have a significant focus on energy efficiency, low-emission technologies and sustainability, in particular the role nitrogen and syngas will play in the energy transition.

For the first time, the event will include a dedicated content track on innovations in sustainability and decarbonisation. Additional tracks will continue the conference’s long tradition of sharing operational experience and lessons learned from operators working in ammonia, urea and nitrates facilities.

The conference will open with a series of technical showcase presentations, which give short, informative product updates, before moving into the opening keynote session which provides crucial “bigpicture” insights into the major market forces shaping the nitrogen and syngas industries. Opening the session is the global nitrogen market outlook from CRU’s Principal Nitrogen Analyst, Shruti Kashyap, which will provide essential context on supply, demand and pricing.

Attention will then turn to accelerating role of ammonia in the energy transition, starting with an overview of costs associated with the production of low emission ammonia, from CRU’s Alex Amin; which will be followed by OCI’s views as a producer on investing on low-emission ammonia capacity. Financing green projects will also be covered, as well as a presentation from Lloyd’s Register Decarbonisation Hub on the opportunities and considerations for the use of ammonia as a marine fuel.

On the following two days the technical programme is split into three tracks. For more information about the event visit www.nitrogensyngas.com

TRACK 1

TUESDAY 7 MARCH

  • Electrified steam methane reforming by eREACT: Emissions-free syngas manufacturing Topsoe A/S
  • Reducing CO2 footprint and increasing ammonia production via injection of green hydrogen into existing ammonia plants thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions AG
  • Recuperative reforming – A key element for blue syngas production Technip Energies, Clariant and Casale
  • Blue hydrogen production: Achieving minimum carbon footprint and minimum operating cost, comparing SMR and ATR KT – Kinetics Technology SpA
  • Low carbon hydrogen: A climate silver bullet BASF l How optimal integration of SOEC electrolysis and Topsoe ammonia technology can significantly impact plant economics Topsoe A/S
  • The best of low carbon hydrogen technologies for ammonia Air Liquide Engineering & Construction
  • Barents blue ammonia project: A landmark towards sustainability Saipem
  • Blue ammonia for lower CO2 emissions thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions AG
  • Blue NH3 with HISORP CC: An adsorptive CO2 removal process Linde l KBR’s blue ammonia technology: Mega-scale with proven technology KBR Technology
  • Tangible solutions to face the challenge and implement a sustainable transition: Casale technologies for emission reduction in existing plants and newbuilds Casale SA

WEDNESDAY 8 MARCH

  • TrueBlue Methanol– A low carbon emission methanol production process BD Energy Systems LLC
  • KBR ammonia cracking technology: A roadmap from renewable energy source to green hydrogen supply where it is needed the most KBR
  • Contribution to materialize economical clean fuel ammonia value chain Toyo Engineering Corporation and JGC Holdings Corporation
  • Turbomachinery technologies for decarbonisation: Ammonia/hydrogen burning gas turbines Baker Hughes
  • Duplex stainless steel for use in alkaline electrolysers with demand on extreme service life – green hydrogen Alleima
  • Improving sustainability of steam reformers Schmidt + Clemens Group l Syngas processing in waste-to-renewable energy technology with reduction of CO2 footprint Siemens Process Systems Engineering Ltd.
  • Euromel® G5 new generation: The green and energy saving melamine technology Eurotecnica Contractors and Engineers
  • Innovative technology to recover nitrogen and produce a climate friendly fertilizer EasyMining Services Sweden

TRACK 2

TUESDAY 7 MARCH

  • Toyo’s new urea process “ACES21-LP” provides great benefits to urea plant owners in cost and energy savings Toyo Engineering Corporation
  • Application of technology features in a large-scale urea granulation plant thyssenkrupp Fertilizer Technology GmbH
  • Latest developments and projects in fluidized bed granulation Green Granulation Ltd/Casale
  • Upgrading salty by-product of acidic scrubber Stamicarbon
  • Superior mechanical reliability of urea plants through post-EPC assistance Toyo Engineering Corp.
  • A blocked leak detection system: What to do? UreaKnowHow.com
  • Use of Safurex® thin foils for pressure, level and flow transmitters Stamicarbon
  • Improving the performance of the HP synthesis and wastewater treatment sections of IFFCO Kalol IFFCO Kalol l Optimizing explosive mixture in a vintage urea plant to enhance production capacity and energy efficiency for sustainable operation Engro Fertilizers Limited
  • Lessons learned from replacing a HP stripper and HP scrubber during turnaround Abu Qir
  • Carbamate solution carryover during urea plant start-up Petrokimia Gresik l Sustainable urea plant operation during stripper ferrules (liquid dividers) unavailability and & in-house repair of stripper ferrules Fatima Fertilizer Company Limited

WEDNESDAY 8 MARCH

  • Optimized FTC flex gauze packs for catalysis of ammonia oxidation Heraeus Deutschland GmbH & Co. KG 
  • Optimization of ammonia oxidation by CFD modelling and experiments. Role of mass transfer on product selectivity Umicore l Start me up – improved activation can improve gauze performance Johnson Matthey 
  • Latest Improvements in the Uhde EnviNOx® Process for N2 O abatement thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions 
  • Emission monitoring & reporting from nitric acid production – A moving target SICK AG l Effective reduction of nitrogen oxide and ammonia emissions by utilizing environmentally compliant technologies Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Engineering, Ltd and Navoiyazot JSC 
  • Stami nitric acid Stamicarbon l Safety of nitric acid and ammonium nitrate plants KBR 
  • Predicting precious metal recoveries from nitric acid plant cleaning PGM Technologies

TRACK 3

TUESDAY 7 MARCH

  • First commercial references of the new award-winning ammonia synthesis catalyst AmoMax-Casale® Casale and Clariant
  • Case study: Decreasing energy consumption during turn-around PT Pupuk Kalimantan Timur 
  • Syngas plant feedstock conversion – Utilising alternatives to natural gas Johnson Matthey 
  • LTS catalyst ShiftMax217® has generated significant monetary benefits through increased energy efficiency Clariant 
  • Process integration & optimization of HyCO plant with H2 purification & CO2 reforming Sahara International Petrochemical Company (Sipchem)
  • Seeing inside the box: REFORM CMS innovation in reforming monitoring and optimisation Johnson Matthey and OnPoint Digital Solutions, LLC 
  • MegaZonE– First commercial reference of novel methanol synthesis technology Clariant 
  • Creep life assessment of non-standard materials: Reformer tubes and outlet manifolds Quest Integrity 
  • Pressure equipment failures on ammonia and nitric acid plants from stress relaxation cracking Becht
  • Understanding amine activated hot-pot systems Optimized Gas Treating 
  • Fatima Fertilizer’s Plant Site – A Guinness world record holder site in safety Fatima Fertilizer Company Limited 
  • How Enhanced Reality technology speeds up the onboarding of operators and reduces plant downtime related to operational errors Voovio Technologies SL

WEDNESDAY 8 MARCH

  • Benfield system revamp experience at Yara plant Kinetics Process Improvements Inc (KPI) and Yara Belle Plaines Inc 
  • Lessons learned from restarting a mothballed ammonia plant Matix Fertilizers 
  • Process and efficiency improvement through ammonia front end pressure drop reduction Engro 
  • Experience with repair and replacement of the second ammonia converter (R-0502) in the ammonia plant-1A of Pupuk Kaltim Fertilizer Pupuk Kaltim
  • Case study: Ammonia converter troubleshooting Misr fertilizers production Co. (MOPCO) 
  • The subsequent effect of leakage found in ammonia converter effluent on ammonia, urea, and utility plant Petrokimia Gresik and Pupuk Indonesia Holding Company
  • Boosting reliability of ammonia plants by switching outdated 101CA/B and 102C boilers with a proven and reliable design SCHMIDTSCHE SCHACK | ARVOS and Casale 
  • Application of CFD for optimization of waste heat boilers Steinmüller Engineering GmbH 
  • Reducing fired heater CO2 emissions and fuel consumption Tube Tech n

Latest in Outlook & Reviews

Price Trends

Global sulphur prices were mostly assessed flat in mid-January, with only slight changes for China, Indonesia and India, while the first quarter contracts for the Middle East, North Africa and Tampa increased from the previous quarter. Overall, the number of transactions taking place globally has declined as subdued demand has limited trading activity in most delivered markets. The current sulphur price environment has been shaped by the combination of rising Chinese demand and higher Middle East f.o.b. prices in the second half of last year. As a result, some consumer markets such as Indonesia and India have been subject to upward pressure in order to remain attractive destinations. But demand remained lacklustre across delivered markets, leaving prices relatively stable.

Protectionism casts a shadow over the new year

The start of a new year is a traditional time to take stock of the previous 12 months and look ahead to the next. In this regard, CRU’s most recent annual client survey, conducted at the end of December last year, makes interesting reading as to your own concerns for 2025 and beyond. There were numerous responses across commodity and financial sectors, and broadly based worldwide, if slightly skewed towards Europe and North America, but across all of these the key worry for the coming year clearly emerged as trade tariffs and protectionism. This is perhaps unsurprising, given incoming US president Donald Trump’s avowed intent to impose blanket 20% tariffs on all goods entering the US, and up to 60% on China. While most clients did not think tariffs would rise as much as some of Trump’s rhetoric might suggest, most expect rises of 5-10% across the board, and Asian businesses are most concerned. CRU’s most recent position paper on US tariffs highlights some of the internal political and legal challenges in implementing these, but does acknowledge that some rises will be inevitable, and may well produce the kind of reciprocal measures last seen in the previous Trump administration’s trade war with China and the EU in 2018.