Chemical Engineering January 2012 - 17

Gases / air
Liquids
NH3
Urea solution /
melt / slurry
Steam / water
Carbamate recycle
MP scrubber
Absorber
Born to run
Pool reactor
Steam
Condensate
Recirculation
MP steam
HP stripper
Reactor
CO2
FIGURE 1. The Stamicarbon Avancore urea process is a further development of the
company's Urea 2000plus technology, and reduces the required plant height to just
22 m - even for large-scale plants (MP and HP = medium and high pressure)
ment items (and the associated costs).
For example, the plant will use Safurex
stainless steel - an improved
duplex steel developed with Sandvik
Materials Technology (Sandviken,
Sweden;
www.smt.sandvik.com).
Thanks to the improved corrosion resistance
of this new material, the air
supply normally used for passivation
is no longer required. As a result, the
absence of oxygen means there is no
need to combust hydrogen; so the H2
converter is eliminated, and the synthesis
section has become intrinsically
safe with respect to explosion risks.
With the quantity of inert gas substantially
reduced, less gas has to be
vented from the urea synthesis section,
so the high-pressure (HP) scrubber
can be replaced by a medium-pressure
(MP) scrubber.
Meanwhile, Stamicarbon continues
to find buyers for its Urea 2000plus
technology, which was commercialized
over ten years ago - still recent
for this conservative industry. For example,
last July the company signed
a license agreement with Hengang
Huahe Coal Chemical Industry, Ltd.
in the China for a urea granulation
plant with a capacity of 1,860 m.t./d.
The plant will be built in Hegang
City, Heilongjiang Province, PRC. The
urea plant will use Stamicarbon Urea
2000plus Technology, which features a
pool reactor, minimum equipment and
minimum plant height.
Stamicarbon will deliver the process
design package, related services and
all proprietary high-pressure equipment,
the pool reactor and piping. The
high-pressure equipment, pool reactor
and piping will be alloyed with Safurex.
Start up is planned in 2014.
Over the last 15 years Stamicarbon
has licensed a total of 15 grassroots
and revamped plants in China with
capacities up to 3,520 m.t./d.
Meanwhile, Toyo's ACES21 process,
which saw its commercial debut
in 2002, has now been selected for
eight urea projects (most recent listed
in Table 1). In the ACES21 process
(Chem. Eng., October 2008, pp. 28-31),
urea is made by reacting liquid ammonia
with liquid CO2 to form ammonium
carbamate, which is then decomposed
into urea. In previous designs,
the urea synthesis loop consisted of
a reactor, a stripper, two carbamate
condensers and a scrubber. Energy
and investment savings are achieved
by integrating the two condensers and
the scrubber into a single condenser
that has a vertical, submerged carbamate-condensing
section (the heat
exchanger tubes are submerged in the
carbamate solution at the bottom of
the condenser). A packed bed on top of
the condenser facilitates the absorption
of uncondensed NH3 and CO2 into
the recycled carbamate solution.
Other recent announcements
Last month, the Saudi Arabian Fertilizer
Co.
(Safco; www.safco.com.
sa), a manufacturing affiliate of the
Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC;
Riyadh,
Saudi
Arabia; www.sabic.
com), awarded a turnkey contract for
GEA Mechanical Equipment
GEA Westfalia Separator Group
Werner-Habig-Straße 1 · 59302 Oelde (Germany)
Phone +49 2522 77-0 · Fax +49 2522 77-2488
www.westfalia-separator.com
Circle 13 on p. 54 or go to a dlinks.che.com/40263-13
MP steam
condensate
If you expect highest performance
and maximum availability in all
fi elds of application, opt for
Westfalia Separator®
new decanter works at the top of
its class, is low maintenance, and
has a service life record second to
none: precisely the specifi cations
for which we built it.
It saves energy, water and operating
costs but not at the expense of
robustness and endurance. High
separating effi ciency and throughput
capacities have never before
been so reliably available and
sustainable - and all this coupled
with simple modifi cation and
upgrade options.
Westfalia Separator®
ecoforce is not
just any decanter; it is the decanter
of a new generation. Whatever
duties you demand of it, it adapts
and delivers on its promise.
Your direct route to 24 / 7 service:
www.westfalia-separator.com / service
ecoforce. This
Liquids to Value
WSG-1-10-010
http://www.smt.sandvik.com http://www.westfalia-separator.com http://www.safco.com http://www.sabic http://www.westfalia-separator.com http://dlinks.che.com/40263-13
Chemical Engineering January 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Chemical Engineering January 2012
