Tag: Construction

Fertilizer International presents a global round-up of current potash projects.

The fertilizer industry’s leading engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) companies, by setting zero incident safety goals, are making construction sites across world safer. In this article, we highlight the safety advantages of modular construction and digital approaches to safety at construction sites.

Leaks in the high-pressure synthesis section of a urea plant can have catastrophic consequences. UreaKnowHow.com started to collect incidents in an incident database and in 2017 AmmoniaKnowHow.com and UreaKnowHow.com introduced FIORDA, the Fertilizer Industry Operational Risk Database, a global open source risk register for ammonia and urea plants.

The refurbishment and modernisation of fertilizer plants offers the opportunity to reduce operating costs, raise production capacity, improve energy efficiency and cut emissions.

Wet process phosphoric acid plants require reliable cooling water facilities. Jan Tytgat, engineering manager, De Smet Agro, shares his insights on the design and operation of cooling water networks, pumps and towers.

By using modular construction, operational modelling and digital plant control, thyssenkrupp Uhde can offer customers fast-build, capital efficient green ammonia plants. Dr Christian Renk and Dr Klaus Nölker explain the company’s innovative approach to plant construction, design and control.

The Woodsmith polyhalite project in the UK is starting to benefit from Anglo American’s ownership, with the mining major leveraging its key advantages to good effect. These include the company’s operational size and financial stability, its vast mineral extraction experience, and premium product marketing expertise. The company also believes that the fertilizer sector will benefit from its leadership in mining industry sustainability.

Gidara Energy has agreed with the Port of Rotterdam to develop a new waste to methanol facility in the Netherlands: Advanced Methanol Rotterdam (AMR). Gidara will duplicate its Advanced Methanol Amsterdam project as a template for AMR, using Gidara’s patented high temperature Winkler (HTW® ) technology, which converts nonrecyclable waste to renewable fuels. This technology has been used commercially in four other waste to syngas production facilities. AMR will convert around 180,000 t/a of non-recyclable waste into 90,000 t/a of methanol, while capturing all waste streams for use; CO2 will be captured and led to local greenhouses; bottom product residue will be used for cement production; and other streams like ammonia and salts will be sold and put to use as feed stock for other industries and road salt respectively, creating a fully circular concept. The facility is scheduled to start detail engineering and construction in the first half of 2023, when a permit is received, and start production of renewable methanol in 2025.

India’s new batch of urea plants are coming on-stream or nearing completion, but can the country regain the self-sufficiency in urea production that it enjoyed in the 1990s?

Erika Niino-Esser of thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions explains the importance of thyssenkrupp’s technologies for sustainable hydrogen and ammonia value chains in the global energy transition, and how they are contributing to a climate-neutral world. Several novel green hydrogen projects are also highlighted.