Energy Efficiency Gains in Indian Ammonia Plants Retrospect and Prospects S.

Nand & Manish Goswami The Fertiliser Association of India 10, Shaheed Jit Singh Marg New Delhi 110067 India Abstract India produced 12.2 million metric tonnes of ammonia in the fertiliser year 2004-05 in38 plants. The vintage of ammonia plants varies from 6 to 31 years and the size of the plants varies from 275 metric tones per day (MTPD) to 1520 MTPD. Natural gas, naphtha and fuel oil are used as feedstock. The average energy consumption of all the ammonia plants in the country was 37.91 GJ/MT in 2004-05. The average energy consumption improved by more than 25% during last 15 years. Internal benchmarking of plants shows that the best 25% plants had an average energy consumption of 32.64 GJ/MT. The average energy consumption of all the ammonia plants in the country is projected to decrease from the present 37.91 GJ/MT to 35.56 GJ/MT in five years. The paper documents the major efforts behind this improvement in efficiency which include use of better feedstock, revamp and retrofit and adoption of better operation and maintenance practices. The paper also outlines the potential for further energy savings and measures required for the same including feedstock change, revamp/retrofit and optimization of critical operating parameters. 1.0 Introduction The history of large scale ammonia industry in India dates back to 1951 when first commercial scale (270 MTPD) was commissioned in Sindri using coke oven gas as feedstock. There was no further development for almost a decade till the second plant of 300 MTPD was commissioned in 1961 using hydrogen from electrolysis of water at Nangal. Subsequently, there were rapid developments in building the ammonia production capacity. During the decade of 60s and early 70s most plants were based on naphtha as feedstock due to surplus naphtha available from newly commissioned refineries. In the late 70s four plants were set up based on fuel oil and LSHS and one lignite based was also switched over to fuel oil to utilize the heavy fraction available from the refineries. Major capacity build up started in the 1980s with gas finds in the Bombay High Bassein. The year 1988 witnessed the commissioning of a cross country gas transmission pipe line and startup of a series of large single stream ammonia-urea plants along its route. A considerable capacity of ammonia was setup till mid 90s using natural gas as feedstock. Latest three plants commissioned in the late 1990s used naphtha as feedstock due to non availability of natural gas. Two of these units would start using regasified LNG by the end of 2006. At present, there are 38 ammonia plants with a production capacity of 13.4 million tonnes. 2.0 Profile of Indian Ammonia Plants Each Indian ammonia plant has unique characteristics depending on its feedstock, vintage, plant size and configuration which have a bearing on energy consumption. Types of feedstock used in various plants include natural gas, naphtha, and fuel oil. There were two plants based on coal which are closed. (Table 1)

Table 1: Profile of Indian Ammonia Plants (2004-05)

Vintage

No. of Plants 3 11

Feedstock

No. of Plants 21 13 4

Size of Plants (MTPD) < 600 600 to < 900 900 to < 1500 1500

No. of Plants 8 3 11 16 38

1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s

Gas Naphtha

12 12 Fuel Oil

Total

38

38

Ammonia production technology has evolved over a period of time and standard plant sizes were primarily governed by the maximum available size of key equipments. The first generation commercial plants commissioned in 1960s in India were of capacities of around 300-450 MTPD and utilized reciprocating compressors. Some of these plants are still operating and by continuous upgradation of technology compare well with later generation plants in energy efficiency. Advent of centrifugal compressors witnessed the construction of ammonia plants with capacity of 600 MTPD or higher. This brought down the energy consumption of ammonia production significantly. Next generation ammonia plants were scaled upto 900-1000 MTPD which resulted in further reduction in energy consumption. Latest generation plants are of 1500 MTPD capacity. Vintage, size, technology level and plant configuration determine the energy efficiency levels of the plants. For example, large single stream ammonia plants using centrifugal compressors will have lower energy consumption than old, small size and multi-stream plants using reciprocating machines.

3.0 Accounting of Input Energy In the accounting methodology, all feedstock and fuel are converted to energy using net heating value. The power imported to ammonia plant is converted to energy using 1 KWH = 2520 kcal as conversion factor. Steam import/export is accounted for by using its enthalpy value. The energy consumption arrived at by such an accounting methodology reflects the battery limit ammonia plant energy consumption. The energy figures reported in this paper are yearly averages and include the energy consumption in offsite like water treatment and effluent treatment facilities. There are locational factors which affect the energy consumption. For example, ambient temperature has an effect on the level of energy consumption in an ammonia plant. Relatively high temperatures of cooling water and ambient air, such as in India, result in higher energy consumption as compared to plants in colder places. There is a difference of almost 10oC in the average cooling water temperature in India as compared to USA, Europe, and even in China. This will make a difference in energy consumption in the two locations, other things being equal. These are important considerations while comparing the energy consumption of various plants in the world.

4.0 Energy Consumption Trends Scale up of capacity, better feedstock, modern process technologies and instrumentation together with improved operation and maintenance practices have resulted in significant improvement in energy efficiency of ammonia production. Modernisation of plants of 1960s and 70s vintage has also helped the plants to reduce the energy consumption. Energy consumption trends in Indian ammonia plants are evidence of industrys efforts in this area. The FAI has been collecting energy consumption data since 1987-88 according to a standard methodology for accounting of energy. The FAI has also documented the efforts of industry from time to time (3, 4, 5, 6, & 8). The FAI also collected data on a wide range of other parameters including onstream efficiency, water consumption, loss time incidents, etc. A detailed benchmarking exercise was carried out in 2003. The exercise included in addition to above mentioned parameters, many other process efficiency and operating parameters. Many of these parameters have direct or indirect bearing on the overall energy efficiency of the plant. However, the scope of the paper has been limited to present trends in energy efficiency and efforts for energy conservation in ammonia plants. There has been significant improvement in average energy consumption of ammonia plants which has came down from 52.22 GJ/MT during 1987-88 to 37.91 GJ/MT during 2004-05 reflecting a 27.4% improvement (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Feedstock Wise Energy Consuption of All Ammonia Plants
58.24 60 50 40 GJ/MT 30 20 10 0 Gas Naphtha Fuel Oil Overall 42.76 35.52 53.51 50.25 38.91 52.22 37.91

Feedstock 1987-88 2004-05

Feedstockwise analysis of plant performance shows that performance of gas-based ammonia plants improved with the average energy consumption going down to 35.52 GJ/MT during 2004-05 from 42.76 GJ/MT during 1987-88, an improvement of 16.9 percent. This is partly due to improvement in old plants and partly due to commissioning of 11 new plants since 1988. Performance of naphtha-based plants also improved by 27 percent from 53.51 GJ/MT to 38.91 GJ/MT during the period. Commissioning of 3 new plants during 1998 and 1999 and modernisation of old plants resulted in this improvement in average energy consumption. Several modernisation measures were also implemented by 4 operating fuel oil based plants of NFL and GNFC-Bharuch. This has improved the average energy consumption of these plants (Figure 1) from 58.24 GJ/MT during 1987-88 to 50.25 GJ/MT during 2004-05. While addition of more efficient capacity has helped to bring down the average energy consumption, the efforts of old plants are no less important in energy conservation. Energy consumption trends of the plants commissioned before 1988 confirm this. Table 2 shows an overall improvement of 12.1 percent since 1987-88 for 17 such plants.

Table 2: Feedstockwise Energy Consumption of Old Ammonia Plants Operational In 2004-05 SL. NO. I II III Feedstock (plants) Gas (5) Naphtha (8) Fuel Oil (4) Overall (17) 1987- 88 41.59 51.04 56.57 47.99 Average Energy (GJ/MT) 2004- 05 37.99 42.13 50.25 42.17 % Improvement 8.7 17.5 11.2 12.1

It is amply demonstrated that the old plants in each category have improved their energy efficiency. Naphtha based plants have shown the highest improvement of 17.5 percent in average energy consumption. Classification of plants using criteria of technology, vintage, size and feedstock can provide an insight into the pattern of energy efficiency of these plants. There are six plants using reciprocating compressors. However, only two plants are operating on continuous basis and third one on intermittent basis. The other three are lying closed. The operating plants have gone through major revamps and have achieved relatively high energy efficiency in spite of being very old (Table 3). Table 3: Capacity and Energy consumption of Ammonia plant based on type of compressors (2004-05) Type of No. of Plants Capacity Average Energy Compressor (000 TPY) (GJ/MT) Reciprocating* 6 844.1 39.37 Centrifugal 32 12566.7 37.87 Total 38 13410.8 37.91 *only three plants were operating, of which one operated only part of the year. Table 4 shows the classification of plants based on period of commissioning. It can be seen from the table that plants commissioned in the 1970s have the highest energy consumption. The major reason is that three of these plants accounting for almost one million tonne capacity use fuel oil as feedstock. Table 4: Vintage-wise Capacity and Energy Consumption (2004-05) Year 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s Total No. of plants 3 11 12 12 38 Capacity (000 MT) 475.1 2950.3 4919.2 5066.2 13410.8 Energy consumption (GJ/MT) 40.00 45.35 38.62 33.51 37.91

Table 5 shows the classification based on the size of the plants. Predictably, large capacity plants have high energy efficiency. Table 5: Plant size wise Capacity and Energy Consumption (2004-05) No. of plants Capacity Energy consumption (000 MT) (GJ/MT) < 900 11 1858.7 45.73 900 27 11552.1 37.32 Total 38 13410.8 37.91 Size
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Gas based plants accounting for more than 60% of total ammonia capacity have the lowest average energy consumption (Table 6). It may be mentioned here that the gas based plants are not receiving sufficient supply of gas and hence many of them resort to using naphtha as feed to make up for the shortfall affecting the efficiency. A few old gas based plants also have much higher energy consumption than the average of 35.52 GJ/MT of ammonia for the gas group. Fuel oil based plants have an average energy consumption higher than both gas and naphtha based plants. Table 6: Feedstock Wise Capacity and Energy Consumption (2004-05) Feedstock Gas Naphtha Fuel Oil Total No. of plants 21 13 4 38 Capacity (000 MT) 8344.4 3680.4 1386.0 13410.8 Energy consumption (GJ/MT) 35.52 38.91 50.25 37.91

5.0 Internal Benchmarking Plants were divided into four quartiles depending on level of energy consumption. Figure 2 shows that the best 25 percent ammonia plants achieved an average energy consumption of 32.63 GJ/MT. These are natural gas-based plants of relatively new vintage. The bottom 25 percent plants showed a high average consumption of 49.45 GJ/MT. These include fuel oil based and a few old naphtha-based plants. Fig 2 Benchmarking for Energy Consumption of

Indian Ammonia Plants-2004-05

50 40 GJ/MT 30 20 10 0 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Overall 32.64 34.43 49.45 39.41 37.66

6.0 External Benchmarking The average energy consumption of 41 ammonia plants in the world surveyed by IFA in 2002-03 is compared with the average energy consumption of Indian plants for the same period. Thirty eight of the 41 plants in IFA survey used natural gas or mixed feed as feedstock and 2 were based on naphtha and one used heavy oil as feedstock. These were compared with twenty Indian ammonia plants based on natural gas and mixed feed. The energy consumption of these plants was lower at 36.19 GJ/MT compared to 37.92 GJ/MT plants in the IFA survey for the same period (Figure 3).

Figure 3: External Benchmarking of Indian Ammonia Plants

40 38.91 39 37.92 GJ/MT 38 37 36 35 34 Plants in IFA Survey

36.19

Gas Based Indian Plants

All Indian Plants

There are a large number of small and medium size fertiliser plants in China. Small and medium size capacity is predominantly based on coal, generally producing ammonium bicarbonate. Large size ammonia plants account for only about 30% of ammonia capacity in China. Most gas-based ammonia plants in China are of 1000 MTPD capacity and were commissioned in 1990s. Comparison of Chinese gas-based plants has therefore been made with standard size gas-based plants in India excluding small size or mixed feed or very old technology plants. The comparison of energy consumption of Indian and Chinese plants is shown in Table 7. It can be seen that the energy consumption of 15 Indian gas-based plants at 35.06 GJ/MT of ammonia during 1999-00 is lower than 36.69 GJ/MT for 8 large size Chinese gas-based ammonia plants. There are only a few naphtha-based ammonia plants in China and all of them are of 1000 MTPD capacity. These plants were commissioned around 1980. The Indian naphtha-based ammonia plants have capacities in the range of 415 MTPD to 1500 MTPD and the vintage of several of them goes back to as early as 1969. The average energy consumption of 3 Indian post-1980 naphtha-based plants are 38.83 GJ/MT compared to 38.70 GJ/MT for 5 large size post-1980 Chinese plants (Table 7). Even the composite average of all naphthabased plants in India including small plants using reciprocating compressors is 41.05 GJ/MT ammonia, which is of the same order after considering the vintage and size. Table 7: Feedstock Wise Energy Data of Indian and Chinese Ammonia Plants (1999-2000) Indian Plants Average Energy (GJ/MT) 35.06 38.83 Chinese Plants No. of Average Energy Plants (GJ/MT) 8 36.69 5 38.70

Feedstock Gas Naphtha

No. of Plants 15 3

Source: Wang Wenshan,The Status Quo of Chinas Synthetic Ammonia and Urea Production Based on Natural Gas and Oil IFA Production and Industrial Trade Committee Meeting, 17-19 October, 2000. FAI Data for Indian Plants.

Data received from various sources indicate the best ammonia plant operating in the world has energy consumption of 29.29 GJ/MT, including energy for offsites and utilities. However, the best plant in India reports energy consumption of 30.12 GJ/MT. The slightly higher energy consumption can be attributed to the hot and humid ambient conditions and higher cooling water temperature compared to plants in located in cold countries.

7.0 Energy Conservation Measures Implemented in Indian Ammonia Plants The significant improvement in the energy consumption is a result of concerted efforts of the industry by way of implementing various energy conservation measures in various process steps and unit operations, change in operational practices, change of catalysts, change of design of various equipments viz reactors and heat exchangers, use of better materials of construction and removal of other bottlenecks. 7.1 Gas Making In preparation of synthesis gas for ammonia production, primary reformer is the major energy consumer. The reformers in old plants had about 85 percent thermal efficiency that has now improved to more than 90 percent in recent reformers. The increase in efficiency has been possible due to recovery of low level heat from the flue gases going to stack in preheating of combustion air, reduction in heat loss through insulation of reformer box and excess air control. It understandable that recovery of low level heat involves additional capital expenditure but in view of the increasing cost of energy it has short payback period. Several plants have installed additional heat recovery surface area in convection zone of reformer furnace. The reformer exit flue gas temperature was brought down from 170C to 148C by KRIBHCO-Hazira plants by installing a feed pre-heat coil in the low temperature convection section of reformer flue gas duct. Thus, the fired heater has been eliminated resulting in energy saving of 0.17 GJ/MT of ammonia. In IFFCO-Aonla I unit, flue gas temperature was around 190C. It installed a natural gas heating coil to recover the heat that was being lost to atmosphere. As a result of this modification, the flue gas temperature was reduced to 160C resulting in energy savings of 0.18 GJ/MT of ammonia. There are other options available to improve primary reformer efficiency. For example, lower steamcarbon ratio would result in reduction in pressure drop and reduced firing. According to data available, steam-carbon ratio in the gas-based plants was in the range of 2.7 to 3.5 in 2001. However lowering of steam carbon ratio below 3.0 has the risk of damages in the boiler/super heater after secondary reformer and should be carefully evaluated. Use of superior tube metallurgy allows use of thin walled reformer tubes and hence increased catalyst loading. This would result in higher reforming capacity and reduction in specific energy consumption if there is no limitation in any other section to process increased output from the reformer. Bigger inside diameter of the reformer tubes can have more catalyst thus processing higher quantity of feedstock. Several plants have changed the reformer tubes of better metallurgy. Use of gas turbine for process air compressor along with heat recovery from exhaust gases can result in higher energy use efficiency. In a conventional plant the compressor are run by a steam turbine with part of the exhaust steam going to condensation. The loss of heat to the condenser is wasted to the cooling water and further energy is to be spent in cooling towers to get rid of this energy. In case of a gas turbine driven compressor there is no such loss but only loss in flue gases. Two ammonia plants commissioned in 1990s are using gas turbine for process air compressor drive with heat recovery steam generation units. 7.2 Gas Purification

The existing CO-Shift section can be modified to provide extra catalyst volume in the case of high steam dry gas ratio. The CO slip can be brought down to 0.05 percent (dry) saving hydrogen in methanator. This would result in lower inert in make up gas and increased amount of synthesis gas with the same amount of feedstock. In one of the plants, LT shift guard reduced CO slip and achieved an energy saving of
7

0.25 GJ/MTammonia. Carbon monoxide present in the LT outlet gas can be selectively oxidized to carbon dioxide by Selectoxo process leaving only traces of CO going to the methanator for conversion to methane. The scheme was implemented by one of the ammonia plants. The existing CO2 removal section can be revamped with more efficient CO2 removal process like aMDEA, glycene etc. This would result in lower heat requirements for regeneration, higher capacity in absorption and regeneration, lower CO2 slip etc. A number of units have switched to aMDEA CO2 removal system. For example IFFCO-Kalol changed from MEA to modified MDEA solution. Change of tower internals and packing can be carried out to improve the absorption and regeneration efficiencies. RCF-Thal replaced the tower packing in both ammonia plants and achieved an energy saving of 0.063 GJ/MT in each plant. Operating parameters like ratio of semi-lean to lean solution, recalculation rates etc. can be optimized to achieve the lowest energy consumption in this section. 7.3 Ammonia Synthesis

Reduction in synthesis pressure results in savings of energy in compression. With the development of low temperature and low-pressure catalyst, it is possible to achieve relatively high conversion at low pressure. The pressure drop across the converter can be reduced with radial gas distribution in catalyst bed. The improved ammonia synthesis converters generally incorporate inter-bed heat exchanger instead of quench type converter for better thermal efficiency. The units were able to save energy of the order of 0.84-1.46 GJ/MT with the revamp/change of converters. A number of old plants like MFL, SFC, NFL-Bhatinda, Panipat and Nangal changed from S-100 axial flow converter to radial flow S-200 converter arrangement. In almost all cases loop pressure came down with substantial energy savings. KRIBHCO-Hazira, RCF-Trombay and IFFCO-Phulpur and Kalol plants have also changed the internals of their Kellogg converters with Ammonia Casale baskets. The converter pressure drop came down from 4 to 3 kg/cm2 and energy savings was more than 0.84 GJ/MT. The new catalyst used in all the revamped converters is highly active with size of 1.5-3.0 mm as compared to the 6-10 mm size catalyst before revamp, resulting in higher conversion per pass. In order to achieve optimum conversion in synthesis converter, it is necessary to purge a certain quantity of gas from synthesis loop so as to reduce inerts concentration in the loop. This purge gas contains inerts (methane + argon), hydrogen and ammonia. This gas is some times used as fuel in primary reformer, after recovery of ammonia in purge gas absorber. In order to utilize this gas in more useful manner, a hydrogen recovery unit (also called purge gas recovery unit) is installed. The hydrogen so recovered is sent back to the synthesis loop to save energy and / or increase production. Almost all the reformer-based ammonia plants installed purge gas recovery unit (PGRU) saving energy in the range of 0.63 to 1.05 GJ/MT ammonia.

7.4 7.4.1

Recent Efforts in Energy Conservation Installation of Pre-Reformer A few reforming plants have installed a pre-reformer to take the advantage of flexibility of using natural gas or naphtha or both. Pre-reformer is an adiabatic reactor with high activity catalyst. It enables hydrocarbon-steam reforming reactions to take place at lower temperatures and ensures reactions of feed gases to near equilibrium. Operations take place at low S/C ratio thereby retarding carbon formation and reducing the pressure drop in primary reformer thus resulting in higher energy efficiency. It also prolongs the primary reformer catalyst life.
8

7.4.2 Introduction of Liquid Ammonia Wash system In the synthesis section, the recycled gas containing CO2 and moisture are mixed up with the make up gas. The gas if used as such would reduce the life of the synthesis catalyst due to presence of oxides of carbon and hydrogen. To purify the make up gas, ammonia wash unit is installed between the LP and HP case of the synthesis compressor. It also reduces the circulation rate in the synthesis loop and thereby the power consumption in the Synthesis Gas Compressor. 7.4.3 Installation of a Parallel S-50 Converter To improve the efficiency of conversion, a few units have installed and others are considering installation of S-50 converter at the downstream of the existing ammonia synthesis converter. The converter allows ammonia synthesis loop to operate at lower pressure with increased conversion per pass. 7.4.4 Two Stage Regeneration in CO2 Removal System To reduce the energy consumption in CO2 removal section, replacing old generation one stage system with 2-stage GV or 2-stage a MDEA CO2 removal system is an option. One plant has recently converted its single stage Lo heat Benfield CO2 removal system to a 2 stage GV system. The 2 stage GV process entails high pressure and low pressure stripping in two strippers using the same Benfield solution with an activator which result in lower regeneration heat requirement and more pure CO2 product. 8.0 Case studies

Case studies of two ammonia plants-one old and one new-are presented to illustrate the efforts of the industry for energy conservation and de-bottlenecking of production capacity. The first case, an old plant, was upgraded time to time to improve its energy efficiency and a major modernisation exercise was completed in 1997(7). The second case is of a plant of mid 1990s having energy saving features from designed stage. It has further improved to become one of the lowest energy consuming plant in the country.

8.1

Case 1: Energy Conservation Efforts in Unit 1

This unit was commissioned in 1974 with a 910 MTPD ammonia and 1200 MTPD urea plant, designed by M/s. Kellogg and M/s. Stamicarbon respectively using natural gas as feedstock. However, it started using naphtha later as fuel in reformer due to non-availability of sufficient natural gas from the nearby gas fields. The designed energy of ammonia was 40.83 GJ/MT ammonia. Various modifications were carried out from time to time including a major revamp in the year 1997. These measures not only reduced the energy consumption but also increased the capacity of the plant to 1100 TPD Ammonia. 8.1.1 Primary Reformer

Primary reformer at unit 1 is a typical design of M/s. M. W. Kellogg having 336 tubes arranged in eight harps, suspended freely in the furnace space. The top fired furnace is heated by 126 combination burners which can be fired with naphtha as well as natural gas. Major portion of heat for reforming was given by naphtha due to shortage of natural gas. Because of ageing and frequent failure of reformer tubes, first revamp of primary reformer was taken up during 1986 in which all the eight harps assemblies were replaced with same HK-40 material. Tube failures after first revamp started in 1987 and tubes failed much earlier than designed for. In 1993, second revamped was carried out and all harps (8 nos.)
9

consisting of 336 catalyst tubes, riser tubes and bottom headers were replaced with superior material G-4852 (manurite) which also reduced the tube thickness. Reduction of reformer tubes thickness from 15.6 mm to 12 mm because of upgraded material increased catalyst volume by 23% and reduced the heat flux and tube skin temperature by 20 to 40oC. This resulted in longer life for the reformer tube. Due to higher catalyst volume and reduction in pressure drop, across the reformer tube from 3.5 kg/cm2 to 2.1 kg/cm2, the plant could be operated at a higher load with lower energy consumption. 8.1.2 Revamping of Convection Zone of Reformer

In the convection zone of primary reformer, six coils were provided originally to recover heat from flue gases. In 1986, an additional coil was installed in LT convection zone to heat boiler feed water of offsite boiler and reduce stack loss. An additional coil was also installed below the last row of the existing BFW coil in 1993. This improved heat recovery from 31.4 GJ/hr to 37.2 GJ/hr and the stack temperature reduced to 200C from 290C. 8.1.3 Revamping of CO2 Removal Unit

The plant was originally designed to use MEA solution as absorbent in the Benfield process of CO2 removal from the synthesis gas. To lower the regeneration heat requirement along with improvement in CO2 recovery rate the UCAR Amine guard system was provided in 1979. The energy saving due to this system was 0.59 GJ/t of ammonia. In 1997, CO2 removal system was retrofitted to utilize activated MDEA process with straight solution swap module without addition of any new equipment. The energy consumption was reduced to 30% from 36000 kCal/kg moles of CO2 to 26000 kCal/kg moles of CO2. 8.1.4 Synthesis Converter Retrofit

In order to reduce the energy consumption and a moderate increase in capacity, ammonia synthesis converter was revamped by using Casale design of axial radial flow. Ammonia conversion increased from 13.6% to 15.5% per pass after converter retrofit and the specific energy consumption was reduced by about 1.0 GJ/MT of ammonia. 8.1.5 Installation of Purge Gas Recovery Unit

In 1980 purge gas recovery unit based on cryogenic separation was installed to recover hydrogen from purge gas containing about 60% hydrogen and recycle the same to synthesis loop. This system not only increased the production by about 40-50 MTPD of ammonia but also brought an energy saving of 0.96 GJ/MT ammonia. Tail gas from the PGR unit containing 30% methane and 15% hydrogen is used as fuel in the primary reformer. 8.1.6 Installation of Pre-reformer

Due to scarcity of gas, a pre-reformer was installed in 1997 to have flexibility in using naphtha along with gas as feed. It also helped to increase the capacity of the plant. As result of these measures, the energy consumption of the ammonia plant of the unit reduced from 41.08 GJ/MT to 39.41 in 1996-97 and further reduced to 38.24 GJ/MT in 2004-05 after a major revamp in 1997. Figures 4 shows the trend in energy consumption of unit 1 from 1987-88 to 2004-05.

10

54.00 52.00 50.00 48.00

Figure 4 : Energy Consumption Trend for Unit 1

GJ/MT

46.00 44.00 42.00 40.00 38.00 36.00

19 75 -7 6 76 -7 7 77 -7 8 87 -8 8 88 -8 9 89 -9 0 90 -9 1 91 -9 2 93 -9 4 94 -9 5 95 -9 6 96 -9 7 97 -9 8 98 -9 9 99 -0 20 0 00 20 01 01 20 02 02 2 0 03 03 20 04 04 -0 5

Year

8.2

CASE 2: Energy Conservation Efforts in Unit 2

The unit commissioned in 1994 consists of a 1,520 MTPD single-stream ammonia plant designed by Haldor Topsoe, Denmark and an integrated 2,620 MTPD urea plant designed by Snamprogetti. Some of the important features of the ammonia plants are: Pre-reformer for flexibility of feedstock and milder reforming conditions. Low steam to carbon ratio ( 2.88) in primary reformer Medium and Low temp shift conversion Synthesis loop with two Ammonia Converters in series resulting in low pressure (135 kg/cm2) synthesis loop. Process Condensate stripper with complete heat recovery The unit started implementing small modifications in design process parameters to achieve higher energy efficiency. Some of the schemes implemented by the unit in the ammonia plants are elaborated below: 8.2.1 Preheating of Reformer Fuel Natural Gas in Feed Pre-heater Coil

As per the original system, feed and fuel natural gas (NG) were being divided before pre-heated separately. Feed NG is being preheated in feedstock pre-heater before going to sulphur removal section while fuel NG is preheated with low pressure steam in other exchanger and used as a fuel in primary reformer furnace. The modification was carried out for reduction in primary reformer stack temperature. The scheme was implemented to pre-heat both feed and fuel NG in feedstock pre-heater coil. A separate line with control valve, isolation valve at upstream and downstream and bypass line to control valve were provided. After the implementation of the scheme, total NG is preheated in the same coil. The increased flow in this coil helped in more heat transfer resulting lower temperature in reformer stack. The low pressure steam used for NG heating earlier was saved.

11

8.2.2

Excess Syn Gas Tapping from the Upstream of Make up Gas Cooler

Due to the natural gas becoming leaner, the unit was facing difficulty in matching the ratio of ammonia and CO2 to produce Urea which was resulting into build up of excess ammonia. To overcome the situation, excess synthesis gas was lined up to primary reformer to control ammonia production and subsequently level of ammonia storage tank. In the design case, the excess synthesis gas going to primary reformer was taken from the down stream of make up gas cooler. This excess synthesis gas is used as a fuel in primary reformer. The tapping of the above mentioned gas has been changed from downstream to upstream of make up gas cooler. By this, the temperature of excess synthesis has increased from 45C to 91C thereby increasing the heating value of the gas. Also, it has reduced the heat load on make up gas cooler, which in turn has reduced the synthesis gas temperature going to synthesis gas compressor. Due to this reduction in temperature, the operating efficiency of the syn gas compressor has improved. 8.2.3 Utilisation of Oxygen Enriched Exhaust from Inert Gas Generation Plant in Secondary Reformer

The exhaust of primary reformer containing CO, H2, H2O and unconverted methane enter the secondary reformer. In the secondary reformer in addition to steam reforming, the reaction between air (oxygen) and process gas takes place raising the temperature to about 1200C. The additional oxygen from the exhaust of nitrogen plant favours the combustion reactions releasing more heat and conversion increases resulting less requirement of fuel in primary reformer for the same conversion.

Figure 5 Energy Consumption Trend of Unit 2

35.00 34.50 34.00

GJ/MT

33.50 33.00 32.50 32.00 31.50 31.00 1995-96 1996-97 1997-98 1998-99 1999-00 2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05

Year
The unit implemented a number of other small measures that have resulted in not insignificant energy saving. Figure 5 shows downward trend in the energy consumption of ammonia plant of the unit from 1995-96 to 2004-05.

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9.0

Prospects for Improvement in Energy Efficiency

Ammonia industry in India continues to go through structural change in regard to feedstock, size and technology. A number of technological options are available to bring about these changes (1 & 2). These changes should result in higher energy efficiencies in the near future. 9.1 Feedstock Change

About 38% of the ammonia capacity is based on naphtha and fuel oil as feedstock. Part of this capacity (10% of the total capacity) is scheduled to switch from naphtha to natural gas in the middle of 2006. The changeover of the balance 28% capacity is also likely to happen in next five years as more gas would be available from imports and domestic discoveries. Change of feedstock from naphtha to natural gas is not likely to result significant improvement in energy efficiency. However, simultaneous revamp and retrofit measures would improve the energy efficiency of these plants. Transition of fuel oil based plants to gas as feedstock would require major changes in the configuration of the plant and significantly high investment in replacement of static equipments and moving machines. Fuel oil based plants after change over to gas should be able to save up to 30% energy from the present levels. 9.2 Debottlenecking of Capacity

About a dozen of plants have proposals for debottlenecking of capacity by 10-20% with significant investment in installation of balancing equipment in various sections of the plants. Most of these measures would simultaneously improve the energy efficiency of the plant. Installation of additional reformer, second stage regeneration in CO2 removal section, second ammonia synthesis converter, etc. are some of the measures under implementation or proposed for increasing the installed capacity of various plants. 9.3 Revamp and Retrofits

Modernization of plants for improving the energy efficiency and higher reliability is a continuous process. A number of energy conservation measures implemented by some plants will be replicated by the others. The major energy conservation measures likely to be implemented in the near future include installation of pre-reformer, additional purification of syngas by achieving higher conversion in shift reactors, cryogenic purification, extra purification of synthesis gas by molecular sieve drying, ammonia wash, chilling of synthesis gas, better CO2 removal system, better catalyst for higher conversions in various process steps, increasing onstream factor by revamp or replacement of critical equipment, etc. The list is by no means exhaustive and all the measures are not necessarily implemented in the same plant. A few plants are already going through major revamp exercise with projected energy saving of 1.25-3.76 GJ/MT of ammonia. 9.4 Optimization of Operating Parameters

Ammonia plants invariably have modern control and monitoring system. A few plants have also installed advanced process control system (APC) to take full advantage of the modern process control instrument. This provides an opportunity to optimize the operation to maximize the production or minimize the production or both. Plants can now be operated closer to design limits with greater comforts. A benchmarking study of the process parameters shows that there is significant variation in operating parameters amongst similar plants. For example, figures show steam-carbon ratio and CO slip from LT shift reactor of 15 gas based plants. Steam-carbon ratio varies from 2.89 to a maximum of 3.65. Similarly, CO slip varies from a low value of 0.89% to a high of 0.40%. Variation in process parameters to an extent can be explained by the difference in
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design and operating philosophy. But there is a definite scope in a number of plants to lower in steam-carbon ratio and CO slip from LT shift for higher energy efficiency. Benchmarking study shows that there is similar scope for improvement in various other process parameters for achieving higher energy efficiency. Modern process control instrumentation and monitoring systems should help us to achieve these objectives. 9.5 Projected Energy Efficiency Level in Five Years

The present gas based ammonia capacity is likely to achieve an average energy consumption of 33.5 GJ/MT from the present level of 35.5 GJ/MT. The new naphtha based plants (commissioned in late 1990s) are also likely to reduce energy consumption of the order of 0.4-0.8 GJ after changeover of feedstock to natural gas. The old naphtha based plants will undergo the revamp/retrofit measures and change of feedstock to natural gas should show a significant reduction in the energy consumption from the present level of 39.75 GJ/MT. As mentioned earlier, the fuel oil based plants accounting for about 10% of the capacity should achieve high savings in energy after feedstock changeover. It is projected that Indian ammonia industry should achieve an overall energy efficiency level of about 35.56 GJ/MT of ammonia at the end of five years compared to the present level of 37.91 GJ/MT. The energy consumption of individual units is likely to vary from 30.96-39.75 GJ/MT of ammonia. References: 1. 2. K.K. Roy, Revamp & Retrofit of Indian Ammonia Plants, Presented at FAI Golden Jubilee and Annual Seminar, 1-3 December, 2005, New Delhi. Shashi Singh, Kamal Gursahani and Robert Collins, Increase Capacity and Improve Energy Efficiency of Ammonia Plant Using KRESTM and/or PurifierTM Technology while Changing Feedstock from Naphtha to Natural Gas, Indian Journal of Fertilisers, 1(9), 37, 2005. S. Nand & Manish Goswami, On-Stream and Energy Efficiency of Ammonia and Urea Plants-An Analysis, Proceedings of the 49th Annual Safety in Ammonia Plants and Related Facilities, Denver, Colorado, USA, 20-23 September,2004, Vol. 45. S. Nand & V. Sood, Energy Conservation Efforts in Indian Ammonia and Urea Plants Proceedings of the FAI Workshop on Energy Conservation and Management in Fertiliser Industry, 3-4 March 2003, New Delhi. S. Nand & Manish Goswami, Downtime Analysis of Ammonia and Urea Plants Fertiliser News, 48 (12), 13, 2003. S. Nand, B. Swaminathan, Manish Goswami and V.Sood, Performance Evaluation of Indian Ammonia and Urea Plants Proceedings of the 46th Annual Safety In Ammonia Plants And Related Facilities Symposium, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, September 1720, 2001, Vol. 42. I.J. Ohri, Energy Conservation Measures in Ammonia Plant at IFFCO, Kalol and Phulpur, Proceedings of the IFA Technical Conference, October 1-4, 2000, New Orleans,472-482. S. Nand and Manish Goswami, Energy Consumption Trends and Conservation Efforts in Ammonia and Urea Plants, Fertiliser News, 43 (12) 17, 1998.

3.

4.

5. 6.

7.

8.

Nomenclature: MT = Metric Tonnes MTPD = Metric Tonnes Per Day Gcal = Giga Calories = 4184 MJ = 3.968 million BTU
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