20 February 2015
DETAILS
has signed contracts with
Technip and Duslo s.a. of Slovakia
for a new ammonia plant
that will be constructed adjacent to
an existing fertilizer complex in Šaľa,
a town located 65 kilometers from Bratislava,
the capital of the Slovak Republic.
As part of the project,
Haldor Topsoe will supply
licensing and basic engineering as well as
proprietary catalyst and equipment
for the ammonia plant,
while
Technip has been awarded
the contract to develop EPC for the new plant.
The plant is expected to go on-stream in early 2018 and
will be designed to meet
a daily production capacity of 1600 MTPD.
Consequently, the new plant is set to become
an important part of the local economy of Slovakia
by providing economic growth as well as
a reliable source to downstream
urea and ammonium nitrate
that can benefit productivity in the agricultural sector.
The new ammonia plant will be designed based on
the latest proprietary Haldor Topsoe technology,
namely the
Haldor Topsoe Exchange Reformer (HTER) technology
that ensures an efficient and reliable conversion of the feedstock
which improves plant economics significantly and
minimizes the environmental impact of the plant.
From a technical perspective the
HTER consists of a number of catalyst filled tubes
installed in a refractory lined shell located in parallel
with the main reformer and utilizing the waste heat available
from the secondary reformer.
In this way the layout not only reduces the size of the main reformer
and its natural gas fuel consumption,
but also minimizes steam generation from the plant.
Over the last decades ammonia related production locations
have undergone a geographical shift away from Europe
towards areas where abundant natural gas resources
allow for ammonia production at comparatively low costs.
Per Bakkerud,
Group Vice President in Topsoe’s Chemical Business Unit
“The project in Slovakia is unique because it represents
the first entirely new ammonia plant
to be built in Europe over the last decades.
The ammonia industry is highly competitive and
even the slightest changes in performance
can impact the bottom line significantly.
Improvements in production technology
such as HTER are paving the way for
improved production economics.
This applies to new plants, but is also relevant
when it comes to revamps of older plant facilities in Europe.
In fact a revamp with a HTER can enhance capacity
in an existing plant with as much as up to 25%”,
WWW.CHEMWINFO.COM BY KHUN PHICHAI
