Large Volume Inorganic Chemicals - Ammonia ... - ammk-rks.net

Chapter 22 AMMONIA2.1 General informationAbout 80 % of the ammonia is currently used as the nitrogen source in fertilisers, with the other20 % being used in several industrial applications, such as the manufacture of plastics, fibres,explosives, hydrazine, amines, amides, nitriles and other organic nitrogen compounds whichserve as intermediates in dyes and pharmaceuticals manufacturing. Among the importantinorganic products manufactured from ammonia are nitric acid, urea and sodium cyanide.Ammonia is also used for environmental protection measures, e.g. in the removal of NO x fromflue-gases. Liquid ammonia is an important solvent and is also used as a refrigerant.In 2003, the world production capacity was 109 million tonnes ammonia. Most of theproduction capacity was located in the following regions [2, IFA, 2005]:• Asia (46 % of world capacity)• East Europe and central Asia (14 %)• North America (11 %)• West Europe (9 %), with this share falling from a level of 13 % in 1988• Middle East (7 %)• Latin America (6 %)• Central Europe (4 %)• Africa (1 %)• Oceania (1 %).In 1974, the developing countries accounted for 27 % of ammonia capacity. By 1998, theirshare had increased to 51 %. In these countries, ammonia is used to produce urea for ricegrowing.A modern ammonia plant has a typical capacity of 1000 – 2000 tonnes/day and new plants arecommonly designed for up to 2200 tonnes/day. The European Union’s ammonia industryproduces approximately 11 million tonnes ammonia per year (2001), from around 50 plants.Data on the location of these plants, their capacity, age and the type of feedstock used, are givenin Table 2.1.With rising feedstock prices and hard competition in the market, many producers have lookedfor possibilities to "revamp" or modernise their older, less efficient plants so that they can staycompetitive. Most revamp projects have been combined with a moderate capacity increasebecause some of the original equipment was oversized and only specific bottlenecks had to beeliminated, not entailing excessive cost. As the market possibilities for a company do notincrease in steps of 1000 or 1500 t/day but slowly and continuously, such a moderate capacityaddition involves less risk and is more economical than building a new plant.For integration of ammonia production with other production, see Chapter 1.Large Volume Inorganic Chemicals – Ammonia, Acids and Fertilisers 35