Venkat Pattabathula, a member of the AIChE Ammonia Safety Committee, reports on the American Institute of Chemical Engineers’ (AIChE) Safety in Ammonia Plants and Related Facilities Symposium held in San Diego on 8-12 September 2024.
OCI Global says that it has reached an agreement for the sale of 100% of its equity interests in its Clean Ammonia project currently under construction in Beaumont, Texas for $2.35 billion on a cash and debt free basis. The buyer is Australian LNG and energy company Woodside Energy Group Ltd. Woodside will pay 80% of the purchase price to OCI at closing of the transaction, with the balance payable at project completion, according to agreed terms and conditions. OCI will continue to manage the construction, commissioning and startup of the facility and will continue to direct the contractors until the project is fully staffed and operational, at which point it will hand it over to Woodside. The transaction is expected to close in H2 2024, subject to shareholder approval.
Large-scale ammonia cracking technology and catalysts will enable the full potential of ammonia to be realised as industries transition towards low carbon energy. In this feature we report on the current status of ammonia cracking processes and catalysts.
Topsoe has signed a contract with CF Industries, the world’s largest producer of ammonia, for the licensing and engineering supporting a front-end engineering and design (FEED) study of a new low-carbon ammonia plant in Louisiana. CF Industries is evaluating the project in collaboration with leading ammonia marketer Mitsui & Co., Ltd. The project would produce low-carbon ammonia for use as a decarbonised energy source.
Anton Kariagin and Stefan Gebert of Clariant discuss the benefits and commercial performance of the new low temperature shift (LTS) catalyst – ShiftMax 217 Plus. A case study demonstrates the benefits of this catalyst, providing ultra-low methanol formation resulting in increased ammonia production and/or energy savings.
A summary of papers presented at CRU’s Nitrogen+Syngas conference, this year held at the Gothia Towers in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Data has always been crucial for successful operations in the chemical industry, but the growing volume of data is only as good as our ability to analyse it. Now, the market is about to experience a step change in data assessment, and Clariant is fully on track, thanks to cutting-edge technologies for real-time data monitoring, visualisation, and information exchange.
Venkat Pattabathula , a member of the AIChE Ammonia Safety Committee, reports on the American Institute of Chemical Engineers’ Safety in Ammonia Plants and Related Facilities Symposium, held in Munich, Germany, from 20-24 August 2023.
SunGas Renewables Inc. has formed a new subsidiary, Beaver Lake Renewable Energy, LLC (BLRE), to construct a new green methanol production facility in central Louisiana. The project will have a capacity of 400,000 t/a of green methanol, using gasified biomass, specifically wood fibre from local, sustainably-managed forests as feedstock. The methanol will have a negative carbon intensity through sequestration of the nearly 1.0 million t/a of carbon dioxide produced by the project, which will be executed by Denbury Carbon Solutions. The methanol will then be used as a clean marine fuel by A.P. Moller–Maersk, which is building a fleet of methanol-powered container vessels.
Highly efficient ammonia synthesis and subsequent cracking to hydrogen are key processes in the transition to the green hydrogen economy. Catalysts play an important role in the ammonia cracking process. Clariant offers both nickel and precious metal catalysts for this application and research on robust catalysts that allow lower temperatures for increased energy efficiency is ongoing.