New Ammonia Production Process

The "process for ammonia production through combined
gasification" developed by China National Petroleum & Chemical
Planning Institute (NPCPI) recently won invention patent of the
state. The process makes a combined use of pure oxygen
gasification, enriched oxygen gasification and air gasification
in the new ammonia production process.
   The new process combines the powdered coal and air continuous
gasification technology with the traditional powdered coal
gasification technology. The carbon monoxide content in feed gas
is down to around 50% and the carbon thio-oxide content is also
greatly reduced. The process flow is therefore shortened. No
nitrogen needs to be added in the follow-up section to adjust
the hydrogen/nitrogen ratio. The consumption of oxygen in the
ammonia production reduces by around 25% and the operating cost
of ammonia units can therefore be minimized.
    When the technology is used in ammonia units with pure oxygen
gasification technology such as Shell powdered coal
gasification, Texco coal-water slurry gasification and GSP
powdered coal gasification, a pure oxygen gasification unit and
an air gasification unit can be constructed at the same time.
In this way only a compression, purification and synthesis unit
is needed in the follow-up section.