CRU Nitrogen + Syngas 2021
Because of the ongoing pandemic, this year’s CRU Nitrogen + Syngas conference was held as a ‘virtual’ event, in early March 2021.
Because of the ongoing pandemic, this year’s CRU Nitrogen + Syngas conference was held as a ‘virtual’ event, in early March 2021.
Georgy Eliseev , Principal Analyst at Fertecon for IHS Markit, looks at the medium to long term outlook for both ‘green’ and ‘blue’ ammonia production.
From new materials of construction and improved equipment designs to the latest digital tools, Casale, thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions, Saipem, TOYO and Stamicarbon report on some of their latest achievements.
Suddenly it’s a good time to be a sulphur producer again. Sulphur prices started 2020 at a low point of $40/t, a level not seen for a decade or more. However, after a slight recovery when the pandemic hit and refineries began reducing production, since August the market trend has been rapidly upwards, now approaching levels of $200/t that have not been seen for a couple of years.
This year’s SulGas conference, covering sulphur recovery and gas treating with a special focus on India and southeast Asia, was run as a virtual event from February 1st to 3rd 2021.
M. Baerends of Fluor reports on the conception, engineering, construction, commissioning and start-up of a new sulphuric acid plant that replaced an existing acid plant at a European sour gas processing terminal. This highly complex gas processing facility handles sour gas from an off-shore field, containing H2 S that must be removed to meet transmission grid specifications. Various issues encountered, their resolution by the joint owner, Fluor and Topsoe team, and plant operating results are discussed.
All acid towers eventually require replacement. In this article, K. Sirikan, A. Mahecha-Botero et al of NORAM Engineering and Constructors Ltd discuss two recently executed acid tower replacement projects. The first project involved the replacement of a brick-lined tower by an alloy acid tower for a sulphur burning plant in North America. The second project involved the replacement of a brick-lined acid tower with a NORAM designed brick-lined tower for a smelter off gas acid plant in South America. The impacts of various design considerations on acid tower replacement projects are compared, including in-situ replacement versus a new location; brick-lined versus alloy shell, and selection criteria for mist eliminators.
Market Insight courtesy of Argus Media
The United States has imposed duties on Russian and Moroccan phosphate imports.
It can’t have escaped anyone’s notice that the question of the carbon intensity of ammonia and downstream nitrogen compound production has been one of the main industry talking points for the past year. Everyone seems to be talking about ammonia of different colours – green ammonia, blue ammonia, and all shades of turquoise in between. If you are confused, it may not be surprising, as these words have come to cover a wide variety of different methods and technologies for producing ammonia, and their green credentials consequently come in a whole range of different shades.