【Ten Years of Rapid Development in Chemical Equipment】1667–2008: China’s domestically produced double-pressure nitric acid production plants at the international forefront

China’s first domestically produced 100,000-ton nitric acid plant capable of operating at full capacity with steam self-sufficiency was successfully commissioned on September 16, 2007, at Yongchang Chemical Co., Ltd. in Xinxiang, Henan. According to the assessment by the on-site expert team, the daily production capacity of nitric acid amounts to over 350 tons, accounting for 100% of the total output； Under full load, the by-product steam can not only meet internal needs entirely but also be supplied externally at a rate of about 1 ton per hour ； When operating at load levels of 70% to 105%, key performance indicators such as the concentration of the final acid product, exhaust gas emission levels, ammonia consumption, oxidation rate, and absorption rate all reach the standards of imported units. The overall technical level of this process has reached or is close to that of similar foreign units, marking the official entry of China’s domestically produced double-pressure nitric acid production units into the ranks of international advanced technologies.     The double-pressure nitric acid process is currently the most advanced and environmentally friendly technology available internationally. Although Yongchang Chemical’s domestically produced 100,000-ton capacity double-pressure nitric acid plant has successfully solved the technical problem of insufficient steam for internal use under full-load operation, thereby achieving self-sufficiency in steam production, the amount of steam it can supply externally still lags behind that of similar plants manufactured by the advanced French company GP.     To this end, Shandong Linyi Yuanjing New Chemical Technology Co., Ltd., which is responsible for the design of the facility, guiding its installation, providing staff training, as well as carrying out commissioning and other related tasks, has pursued its efforts relentlessly and provided ongoing support. Working together with the users and a leading domestic equipment manufacturer – Xi’an Shaanxi Gas Turbine Power Co., Ltd. – it managed to increase the amount of waste steam generated from around 1 ton per hour at the time of commissioning (0.07 tons per ton of 100% HNO3) to around 3.6 tons per hour (0.25 tons per ton of 100% HNO3) within just 4 months of the facility’s operation. This increase in waste steam generation resulted in an annual economic benefit of around 5 million yuan for the manufacturing enterprise. Not only did this bring significant economic advantages to the company, but it also helped to bring China’s domestic nitric acid industry’s core technologies closer to world-class standards, by bringing them in line with the steam supply standards set by the French company GP.     Taking the data from third-generation domestic nitric acid production plants with double-pressure systems before successful improvements as an example: if 2 to 3 tons of steam need to be supplied externally per hour for nitric acid production, and assuming that this plant can currently produce around 3.6 tons of steam per hour, with a market price of 120 yuan per ton, it can generate direct economic benefits of 672 to 792 yuan per hour for the enterprise ； One month amounts to 480,000 to 570,000 yuan, and one year amounts to 4.8 million to 5.7 million yuan. It also saves the costs and expenses associated with the need to install an additional boiler due to insufficient steam production, as well as the environmental protection fees required for that boiler ； **It reduces production costs and enhances a company’s overall competitive advantage in the nitric acid industry… For a company, this represents a significant asset.     Shandong Linyi Yuanjing Chemical New Technology Co., Ltd. is a private technology enterprise that was established less than five years ago. Its engineering and technical staff come mostly from large, well-known nitric acid manufacturers in China; they have early exposure to advanced foreign nitric acid technologies and also possess a thorough understanding of various domestic nitric acid production processes. Jing Shuangwu, the founder of this company, was in his early years a key member of the technical team behind the 2×270,000 tons per year nitric acid production plants using the double-pressure method at Shanxi Tianji Coal Chemical Group Co., Ltd. He was one of China’s first generation of experts in this field, as well as one of the pioneers in building China’s first nitric acid production plants that utilized self-generated steam for operation. He is regarded as a chairman who “only knows how to work, not how to make money”. When Tianji Group imported China’s first set of double-pressure nitric acid production equipment, he, with the dedication, hard work, and attention to detail typical of a motivated young Chinese person, followed the foreign experts throughout the process. He carefully observed every aspect and detail of the installation and commissioning of the equipment, and absorbed the core technologies involved. On this basis, he wrote a book titled \"Nitric Acid Production and Operation\" totaling over 300,000 words; this book served as a model for the production processes of many nitric acid manufacturers in the industry, playing an invaluable role in the development of China’s domestic nitric acid industry in recent years. Based on a summary of the design and production experience gained from the first 7 sets of double-pressure nitric acid plants, as well as by pooling the expertise of technical specialists from various renowned institutions, he and his company worked together with Xi’an Shanggu Power Co., Ltd. to conduct repeated research and improvements. Eventually, they succeeded in overcoming the \"technical challenge\" related to steam balance in the nitric acid production process. This enabled China to rid itself of the need to import expensive double-pressure nitric acid plants from abroad, allowing it to stand among the world’s leading nations in this industry.     At the beginning of 2008, the company signed another contract with Jiangsu Huai’an Daimengte Chemical Co., Ltd. for the design and technology transfer of a 100,000 tons per year dilute nitric acid production plant using the double-pressure method, as well as a 100,000 tons per year concentrated nitric acid production plant using the nitromagnesium method; completion and commissioning of these plants were scheduled for early 2009. Previously, the design contracts signed by this company with Hangzhou Longshan Chemical Co., Ltd. for 100,000 tons of dilute nitric acid produced by the double-pressure method, 100,000 tons of concentrated nitric acid produced by the nitromagnesium method, and 30,000 tons of nitric acid produced by the direct two-sodium process, have had all design work completed; the civil engineering work has already begun, with completion and commissioning scheduled for the end of 2008. Jing Shuangwu said that in these two engineering designs in 2008, they will take China’s double-pressure nitric acid process technology to a new level.

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