Where to start for the future development of the ammonia synthesis industry

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Where to Start the Future Development of the Ammonia Synthesis Industry Author/Source: JinYinDao Date: 10-24-2016 Clicks: 56 The ammonia synthesis industry is one of China’s five key industries; it accounts for 25% of the total energy consumption in China’s chemical industry. It is also a sector that receives special attention in efforts to reduce energy consumption and emissions. The recently issued \"Development Plan for the Petrochemical and Chemical Industries (2016–2020)\\" stipulates that, in principle, no new ammonia synthesis plants using anthracite coal and natural gas as raw materials should be built. So, how will the industry related to ammonia synthesis develop in the future? A detailed analysis of Treasure Island is as follows. 　　Overall, the future development of the synthetic ammonia industry requires breaking through bottlenecks and enhancing its capacity for innovative development. First, we need to identify the bottleneck in order to overcome it. The current development bottlenecks in the synthetic ammonia industry mainly include the following aspects. Firstly, overcapacity is quite severe, with the excess rate exceeding 30%. Secondly, industry competition is intensifying, the price of urea in the downstream market remains low, and efforts to expand demand are still relatively weak. 　　Once the bottlenecks in the industry’s development are identified, it will gradually become clear where to start for future progress. **It has been clearly stated that new projects for producing synthetic ammonia will be controlled in the future. Therefore, efforts should start with the improvement and modification of existing devices. From the perspectives of raw material structure, plant technical structure, and corporate structure, reduce energy consumption and promote energy conservation and emission reduction. And raw material technology directly determines energy consumption. The main task of energy conservation and emission reduction is to reduce energy consumption and lower carbon dioxide emissions. 　　To reduce energy consumption, it is necessary to develop ammonia synthesis plants that use anthracite as raw material. At present, most large and medium-sized nitrogen fertilizer manufacturers in China still use non-anthracite as raw material, resulting in a comprehensive energy consumption of 1,500–2,050 kilograms of standard coal per ton. Currently, the construction of new facilities is restricted; therefore, existing facilities should focus on reducing their overall energy consumption by improving raw materials or technologies. 　　However, even when using bituminous coal, there is a significant difference in the overall energy consumption; for the same raw material composition, product scale, and production method, the advanced value in China is 1365 kilograms of standard coal per ton, while the lower level reaches as high as 2460 kilograms of standard coal per ton. Therefore, reducing overall energy consumption is key to the development of this industry. At present, most ammonia synthesis plants in China still use fixed-bed batch gasification technologies and equipment; many advanced technologies and devices have not yet been widely adopted. Companies are not very enthusiastic about implementing cogeneration, multi-stage utilization of steam, and waste heat recovery, so the improvement of facilities and raw materials is key to the development of this industry. 　　Meanwhile, the future development of the industry focuses on optimizing the product structure. Relevant authorities should further optimize the industry access system, eliminate outdated production capacity, and improve capacity utilization in order to achieve a balance between supply and demand. Starting with the main downstream nitrogen fertilizers, new types of fertilizers should be developed to enhance the quality of chemical fertilizers, so as to fundamentally address the issue of surplus. 　　Through analysis, it can be seen that the future development of the ammonia synthesis industry should focus on phasing out outdated production capacity, reducing energy consumption, and developing new types of fertilizers to expand demand, thereby achieving a balance between supply and demand and ensuring healthy development. (Yuan Ning)