【Ten Years of Rapid Development in Chemical Equipment】1913–2018: Calibration and Evaluation of China’s First Industrial Demonstration Unit for Low-Temperature, Low-Pressure Ammonia Synthesis Using Ruthenium-Based Catalysts

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Safety first. Prevention first – let’s give praise and support to the achievements made in China’s chemical technology and equipment sector. **********************【Ten Years of Rapid Development in Chemical Equipment】Regular updates and summaries are available; feel free to join the discussions at https://bbs.hcbbs.com/thread-3576046-1-1.html (Source: Haichuan Chemical Forum Website) ***************** As of March 7, 2018, the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation organized experts to conduct a 72-hour testing procedure on China’s first industrial demonstration plant for the synthesis of ammonia using iron-ruthenium catalysis under low temperature and pressure conditions. The calibration report shows that by using the iron-ruthenium cascade catalytic system, the reaction pressure and temperature for ammonia synthesis can be significantly reduced, enabling a high ammonia yield even at low hydrogen-to-nitrogen ratios. Experts in evaluation and calibration believe that this significant breakthrough achieved by China in the industrial application of ruthenium-based catalysts has broken the foreign technological monopoly, providing important technical support for the transformation, upgrading, and high-quality development of China’s ammonia synthesis industry. 　　The assessment and calibration results show that for an ammonia synthesis plant with a capacity of 10,000 tons that utilizes the iron-ruthenium catalytic system, under conditions of a pressure of 10.2 MPa, a hotspot temperature in the ruthenium catalyst bed of 436°C, a space velocity of 9160 h-1, a hydrogen-to-nitrogen ratio of 2.3–2.8, and 8.6% inert gas, the calibration results indicate that, compared to similar domestic iron-based ammonia synthesis processes, the production capacity can be increased by approximately 33.6%; the overall energy consumption per ton of ammonia can be reduced by about 0.22 tons of standard coal, and each cubic meter of ruthenium catalyst enables the production of approximately 6 more tons of ammonia per day than an iron-based catalyst. This indicates that the iron-ruthenium cascade catalytic system has the characteristics of \"three lows and one high\", that is, a high ammonia yield can be achieved under conditions of low temperature, low pressure, and a low hydrogen-to-nitrogen ratio. 　　Shu Xingtian, head of the calibration expert group and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, gave high praise to the calibration results. He said, “Synthetic ammonia is an important chemical that is crucial for the national economy and people’s livelihoods, as well as for ensuring **food security.” The traditional ammonia synthesis industry uses iron-based catalysts, which result in high reaction pressures, high temperatures, high energy consumption, and low yields. The R&D team formed by Sanju Environmental Protection and Fuzhou University has made breakthroughs in high-activity, high-stability ruthenium-based catalysts as well as iron-ruthenium catalytic systems, which will enable breakthrough progress in the technology of China’s ammonia synthesis industry. At present, China’s annual production of synthetic ammonia exceeds 55 million tons, and in the future this technology is expected to help boost economic output by hundreds of billions of yuan. ” Men Cungui, a professor-level senior engineer at the China Petroleum Consulting Center, said, “At present, only KBR in the United States worldwide possesses the technology for the industrial application of ruthenium-based catalysts.” China’s breakthroughs in ruthenium-based catalysts have broken the foreign monopoly and met the major needs of the country’s ammonia synthesis industry. The development guidelines for the nitrogen fertilizer industry during the 13th Five-Year Plan period set clear energy-saving targets; this technology has overcome the barriers that hindered enterprises from reducing consumption and increasing efficiency, providing important technical support for the transformation and upgrading of China’s traditional ammonia synthesis industry as well as for energy savings and consumption reduction. ” 　　Jiang Lilong, head of the R&D team and director of the Fertilizer Catalyst **Engineering Research Center at Fuzhou University, told reporters that this technology was developed through more than 20 years of hard work by two generations of researchers. Thanks to the close integration of industry, academia, and research, an industrial demonstration on a scale of 10,000 tons was achieved for the first time at Heyou Chemical. This technology shows great potential in reducing production costs and increasing output. Taking an annual production volume of 180,000 tons of synthetic ammonia as an example, it is estimated that this will save the company over 30 million yuan in energy costs per year, increase production capacity by more than 33.6%, and generate an additional output value of over 100 million yuan.