Ningxia Petrochemical’s first domestically produced large-scale fertilizer plant in China reached its production capacity target ahead of schedule

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Ningxia Petrochemical’s first domestically produced large-scale fertilizer plant meets production targets ahead of schedule Author/Source: Date: 2022-11-30 Clicks: 34 As of November 18, Ningxia Petrochemical’s domestically produced large-scale fertilizer plant had been operating continuously for 236 days. By 8 a.m. on November 14, it had produced a total of 489,000 tons of ammonia and 800,000 tons of urea for that year. As China’s first plant of its kind to be built using domestic technology, it met its production targets ahead of schedule – doing so in 321 days, 9 days earlier than the planned 330 days. This achievement marks another significant breakthrough by Ningxia Petrochemical in the field of developing domestically produced large-scale nitrogen-based fertilizers. The 45/80 domestically produced large-scale fertilizer plant of Ningxia Petrochemical Company uses natural gas as its raw material. It is the first large-scale fertilizer plant in China with independent intellectual property rights. It serves as a crucial facility for ensuring agricultural production, and is also one of the key peak-shaving facilities in China for balancing the distribution within the natural gas pipeline network. Since the successful first startup of the facility in 2018, Ningxia Petrochemical Company has always aimed to ensure a stable supply of natural gas for civilian use. During periods of high demand for natural gas in winter, it complies fully with the arrangements made by the group company by reducing the amount of gas used for industrial purposes; as a result, the facility operates at reduced capacity during winter and is unable to function on a full cycle basis. Since the beginning of this year, Ningxia Petrochemical Company has seized the favorable opportunity presented by the improving situation in natural gas supply. Focusing on the objectives of long-term and high-load operation of its facilities, it has intensified efforts in technological and management innovation, implementing refined management practices. Through mechanisms such as task assignment based on competitive bidding, it has re-evaluated and optimized key parameters such as the hydrogen-to-nitrogen ratio and the water-to-carbon ratio. As a result, energy consumption metrics such as natural gas usage per ton of ammonia produced and ammonia consumption in urea production have reached historic lows, while the duration of continuous operation of the facilities has reached new record highs.