Tag: Hydrogen

With the sulphur content of crude oil and natural gas on the increase and with the ever-tightening sulphur content in fuels, refiners and gas processors will require additional sulphur recovery capacity. At the same time, environmental regulatory agencies of many countries continue to promulgate more stringent standards for sulphur emissions from oil, gas and chemical processing facilities. Rameshni & Associates Technology and Engineering discusses options for compliance with new regulations on emissions regarding IMO 2020 compliance and report on the results and evaluation of three case studies. Worley Comprimo reports on the revamp of a sulphur complex built in the late 1980s at a refinery in East Asia with the aim to increase the capacity, improve the availability and reliability and make the unit environmental compliant.

With declining ore grade feed to a metallurgical smelting process comes an increase in impurity load in the gas cleaning/acid process chain. K. Hasselwander, L. Skilling and C. Bartlett of Metso Outotec discuss a range of process solutions and how to maintain high productivity while keeping costs in check.

Ammonia synthesis catalysts have long lives and catalyst replacement is an infrequent activity. Many people will go through their careers in the ammonia industry without ever having to replace a synthesis catalyst and the infrequent nature of catalyst replacement means that many plants may not have direct experience of this activity. Ammonia synthesis catalyst can present a range of hazards throughout the replacement process, from transport through loading, reduction, start-up, shutdown and discharge, but the good practice illustrated in this article, and collaboration between catalyst suppliers and end users can ensure safe and successful catalyst changeouts.

The ammonia industry seems to have quite a buzz about it at the moment. As can be glimpsed in our Nitrogen Industry News section this issue, the number of proposed green ammonia production sites continues to grow, as does interest in ammonia as a hydrogen or energy carrier, while the shipping sector continues to seriously consider ammonia as a green fuel candidate for the longer term. The latter prospect could see current ammonia demand double by 2050, although as our article on sustainable nitrogen production on page 22 notes, whether enough renewable power will exist by then to generate that must be seriously doubted.

Georgy Eliseev , Principal Analyst at Fertecon for IHS Markit, looks at the medium to long term outlook for both ‘green’ and ‘blue’ ammonia production.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) says that it plans to build a $3 billion methanol plant on Brass Island in the Niger Delta to produce up to 10,000 t/d of methanol using from gas supplied by Shell. A final investment decision was made by NNPC, DSV Engineering and the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, a state agency set up to ensure Nigerian involvement in oil and gas projects. Around 70% of funding for the project will come from international lenders, including the China Export-Import Bank, the African Development Bank and international commercial banks, with the rest funded from an equity issue. BP has signed a 10 year offtake deal for the plant’s output with the Brass Fertilizer & Petrochemical Company, the entity set up to operate the plant. Construction of the plant is expected to be completed by 2025.

Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) has unveiled plans to build Europe’s largest power-to-ammonia facility at the Danish port of Esbjerg, based on electricity from offshore wind turbines. The company said the plant will consist of 1GW of electrolysis capacity, capable of supplying sufficient hydrogen to produce 300,000 t/a of ammonia, and that the ammonia will be used as both as agricultural fertiliser and as fuel for the shipping industry. Excess heat generated in the process would be used to provide heating for around one third of local households in communities around the plant, to be sited on the west coast of Denmark. The company has signed a memorandum of understanding for the project with companies from both the agriculture and shipping sectors, including Danish Crown, Arla, DLG, Maersk and DFDS Seaways. CIP anticipates that it would cost approximately $1.2 billion to build the facility. They are currently seeking investors for the project and expect that the investment decision would be reached by 2023. The plant could enter commercial operations in 2026.

The profound demand shock caused by Covid-related lockdowns has had a major impact upon the refining industry. Run rates have been at low levels in North America and Europe, and a new wave of rationalisation is under way, at the same time that capacity continues to grow in Asia. Will this spur diversification into petrochemicals and low carbon options for Atlantic basin refiners?

EcoMax™ tail gas catalysts offer a sustainable and cost effective choice for tail gas catalysts. They are made from spent hydroprocessing catalysts, which reduces the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of sourcing fresh cobalt and molybdenum and therefore supports operators’ sustainability goals. B. Visioli of Porocel (a part of Evonik) discusses the benefits of catalyst reuse from hydroprocessing for tail gas treating.

Wet sulphuric acid technology when used as tail gas treatment for a Claus unit, or in place of a Claus unit with amine-based tail gas unit, brings many benefits if there is a market for the sulphuric acid and steam. A new alternative is to have a WSA unit in combination with a Claus unit and to recycle the acid to the Claus unit for higher sulphur recovery efficiency.