Content area
Full Text
In 1998, two new grassroots ammonia plants using KBR Advanced Ammonia Process (KAAP) technology were started up in Point Lisas, Trinidad. These plants, Farmland MissChem Ltd (FMCL) and PCS Nitrogen Train 4 (PCS), represent the first of a new generation of Kellogg Brown & Root ammonia plants. This is the first time the KBR Advanced Ammonia Process (KAAP) and KAAP catalyst have been used in a grassroots ammonia plant. Not only are these the first grassroots plants to use KAAP technology, but they also have the largest nameplate capacity of any ammonia plant yet built.
In 1913 Haber and Bosch developed the modern ammonia process. It is unlikely they ever imagined how large ammonia plants would become or that their original catalyst would be in use for so long. Haber and Bosch built their process around a magnetite (iron) ammonia synthesis catalyst operating at high pressure to force the equilibrium of the ammonia synthesis reaction (below) to favour ammonia production.
In the decades since 1913 more active catalysts have been developed. Many improvements have led to today's highly active magnetite catalysts. In addition, scientists have attempted to develop non-magnetite catalysts. This work had no commercial success until BP and Kellogg developed the ruthenium-on-carbon KAAP ammonia synthesis catalyst. The first commercial application of this KAAP catalyst was in Pacific Ammonia's plant in Kitimat, British Columbia in 1992. This first application was part of a retrofit to increase the capacity of an existing plant. The second and third applications of KAAP catalysts were also revamp projects to increase plant capacities. However, there is a quantum leap from these revamps to applying KAAP knowledge to the design of the FMCL and PCS plants in Trinidad, which, at 1,850 t/d, are the largest ammonia plants ever built.
It has been a tradition at Kellogg Brown & Root to apply knowledge from other applications to ammonia technology. Our objective is client satisfaction and our clients want to be the lowest cost producer of ammonia. Our technology developments have focused on making more reliable plants, with lower capital and operating costs. In the 1940s and 1950s Kellogg was just another ammonia contractor but in the 1960s Kellogg applied knowledge from other applications and developed the first large centrifugal ammonia plant....