thyssenkrupp
Thyssenkrupp’s Industrial Solutions business area (Essen, Germany; www.thyssenkrupp-industrial-solutions.com) has received a new order for the construction of a fertilizer plant in Poland. The customer for the project is ANWIL, a subsidiary of PKN ORLEN, one of the largest oil industry corporations in Central and Eastern Europe from Poland. The new facilities for the production of 1,265 metric tons per day (m.t./d) of nitric acid and 1,200 m.t./d of ammonium nitrate will be located in Wloclawek, some 200 km northwest of Warsaw, at an existing chemical and fertilizer complex. thyssenkrupp’s patented EnviNOx process will be used to remove greenhouse gases from nitric acid production.
“More than ever, the chemical industry faces the challenge of growing profitably and at the same time protecting the climate. With the realization of this new, low-emission plant in Poland, ANWIL and thyssenkrupp are making an important contribution,” says Sami Pelkonen, CEO Chemical & Process Technologies at thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions. “We look forward to our further cooperation and are proud to bring decades of plant engineering and process know-how into the project.”
The order includes the provision of technology licenses and the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) of the new facilities. The contract value is in the lower three-digit-million-euro range. The project is a substantial part of a larger investment program implemented by ORLEN to expand its fertilizer portfolio and open up new value chains in the petrochemical industry. By 2022, ORLEN aims to increase its fertilizer production capacity in Wloclawek by 50% to 1.461 million ton/yr to meet growing demand.
“With thyssenkrupp, we have found a reliable partner for our investment project. The company combines extensive plant engineering experience with efficient technologies that meet and exceed the highest environmental standards. Together, we will drive growth and sustainable development of the chemical industry in Poland”, said Agnieszka Zyro, CEO at ANWIL S.A., at the signing ceremony.
thyssenkrupp’s patented, world-leading EnviNOx technology for greenhouse gas reduction will be utilized to treat tail gases from nitric acid production. The process converts environmentally harmful nitrous oxide (laughing gas; N2O) and other nitrogen oxides into nitrogen, oxygen and water with the aid of a special catalyst. This will reduce the annual emissions of the new plant by around 3,200 ton/yr of laughing gas and 1,000 ton/yr of nitrogen oxide.
Since the global warming potential of laughing gas is estimated to be around 310 times greater than that of carbon dioxide, this corresponds to a CO2 reduction of about 1 million ton/yr CO2. Today, more than 20 EnviNOx systems are already contributing to a more climate-friendly production of nitric acid worldwide, while more are under construction.