New low-cost metal oxide solid scavengers for hydrogen sulphide (H2 S) removal from wet and dry natural gas have been developed and deployed at commercial scale. The desulphurisation process uses a proprietary sorbent chemistry to achieve a high sulphur capacity and removal efficiency. G. Alptekin, F. Kugler and M. Schaefer of SulfaTrap LLC describe the new technology and its performance.
Major fertilizer industry players such as Stamicarbon, Nutrien and CF Industries are ramping up investment in ‘green’ and ‘blue’ fertilizer production. Consequently, low-carbon production technologies are being scaled-up and deployed commercially.
M. Østberg and M. Rautenbach of Haldor Topsoe describe ReShift ™ technology, a new high temperature CO 2 reforming process, where preheated CO 2 is added directly downstream of a main reformer and then equilibrated in an adiabatic reactor. This new technology makes use of the high temperature of the reformer effluent to circumvent carbon formation, while at the same time maintaining an overall minimum steam to hydrocarbon carbon ratio, depending on process specific conditions. An increase in the amount of CO 2 added to the process will result in an increased fraction of CO in the produced synthesis gas. Synthesis gas with H 2 /CO ratios in the range 0.5-3 can be produced. These CO-rich gases are typically utilised in the production of functional chemicals and synthetic fuels.
Reducing the carbon footprint in the synthesis of chemicals is a new global challenge as the world works towards providing sustainable products designed to minimise their environmental impacts throughout their whole lifecycle. This article looks at the role of blue technologies as part of a roadmap towards the decarbonisation of fuels and chemicals.
By harnessing the power of real-time data and exploiting the opportunities provided by digital solutions plant owners can achieve greater plant efficiency and reliability. In this article Stamicarbon shows the benefits of the Stami Digital Plant Optimiser for urea plants, OnPoint Digital Solutions provides a case study on optimising primary reformer heater operations using Smart Combustion™ , TOYO provides an update on its digital transformation service DX-PLANT® and thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions provides examples of how digital solutions can be used to improve plant operation.
thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions discusses a revamping concept to reduce CO2 emissions by replacing some of the hydrogen in the front end of the ammonia plant with green hydrogen, KBR and Casale report on revamp options to increase the capacity of vintage ammonia plants in the former Soviet Union, Johnson Matthey presents a novel integrated ammonia flowsheet for the production of ammonia, methanol, urea and UFC and Arvos | Schmidtsche Schack discusses the benefits of a new process gas boiler.
TechnipFMC’s EARTH ® technology, with its structured catalyst jointly developed by TechnipFMC and Clariant, has been proven to be a cost effective way to drastically improve productivity and energy efficiency of the steam reforming process, while reducing the CO 2 footprint per unit hydrogen and syngas product. The technology can be applied in projects to increase the capacity of ammonia and methanol plants and allows significant reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. S. Walspurger of Technip Benelux B.V. and S. Gebert of Clariant GmbH report on the EARTH ® technology and its applications.
There is an urgent need to limit the rise in global temperatures to avoid severe environmental and societal impact. This can be expressed as a target to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050. The provision of decarbonised hydrogen at scale is an essential step in helping to achieve net zero. Johnson Matthey’s Low Carbon Hydrogen (LCH) technology permits the needs of scale and urgency to be met. J. Pach of Johnson Matthey presents a serious response to a serious threat.
The UK’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has awarded £28 million ($36 million) of government funding to five demonstration projects for low carbon hydrogen production, as part of a larger stimulus package to cut industrial carbon emissions. The projects targeted for funding include:
This year’s Nitrogen + Syngas conference was held from 17-19 February in The Hague, Netherlands.