MOSCOW (MRC) -- Meet AmoMax-Casale: the sustainable, award-winning new ammonia synthesis catalyst jointly developed by Clariant and Casale. Thanks to significantly higher activity than previous catalysts, AmoMax-Casale makes ammonia production more efficient and less polluting than ever before, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing.
Producing ammonia (NH3) creates more carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions than any other chemical synthesis process. That’s why Clariant works relentlessly to enhance its ammonia synthesis catalysts, leading to step changes like the industry proven AmoMax 10, which changed the game of ammonia synthesis from magnetite-based to wustite-based catalysts. Now, there’s a solution that even surpasses the past generation AmoMax.
Born of Clariant’s catalyst expertise and Casale’s ammonia converter design know-how, AmoMax-Casale delivers an up to 30 percent higher efficiency factor, also thanks to a larger active surface area than previous generations of AmoMax. This striking performance surge significantly lowers the energy consumption of an ammonia plant, such leading to a major reduction in CO2 emissions.
The catalyst’s higher activity allows operation of the ammonia synthesis loop with considerably less pressure. This means the plant consumes less energy to produce ammonia, and hence generates less CO2 emissions.
Higher catalyst activity means higher conversion, so the plant will consume less energy for the recirculation of the process gas in the reactor loop. Again, less CO2 is emitted.
The combination of a higher active catalyst with the Casale design of converter internals makes the difference. This means, a typical ammonia plant producing 1600 tons/day, would save potentially US$ 300,000 annually on energy costs, and reduce CO2 emissions by up to 85,000 tons over the catalyst’s average lifetime of 15 years. Furthermore, AmoMax-Casale is capable of increasing the ammonia production capacity by up to 5%.
The benefits of AmoMax-Casale are not just theoretical. The catalyst has already proven its great performance in its first industrial reference at an ammonia plant in the Americas. The plant was upgraded to a Casale 3-bed interchanger using the AmoMax-Casale catalyst in late 2019 and is already reporting energy savings of 50,000 kcal/MT, which translates to an expected annual reduction of US$700,000 in costs, and 6.148 tons in CO2 emissions.
Casale and Clariant plan to continue to collaborate in further ammonia projects, as well as other future technologies that will help our customers achieve net zero CO2 targets.
As MRC informed earlier, in October 2020, Clariant (Muttenz, Switzerland) announced the construction of a new state-of-the-art catalyst production site in China. This project represents a significant investment which further strengthens Clariant’s position in China and enhances its ability to support its customers in the country’s thriving petrochemicals industry.
The new facility will be primarily responsible for producing the Catofin catalyst for propane dehydrogenation, which is used in the production of olefins such as propylene. Thanks to its excellent reliability and productivity, Catofin delivers superior annual production output compared to alternative technologies, resulting in increased overall profitability for propylene producers, says the company. Construction at the Dushan Port Economic Development Zone in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province was scheduled to commence in Q3 2020, and Clariant expects to be at full production capacity by 2022.
Propylene is the main feedstock for the production of polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 1 240,000 tonnes in 2020 (calculated using the formula: production, minus exports, plus imports, exluding producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020).
Clariant AG is a Swiss chemical company and a world leader in the production of specialty chemicals for the textile, printing, mining and metallurgical industries. It is engaged in processing crude oil products in pigments, plastics and paints.
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