Ammonia Synthesis Process
AssigneeAmmonia Casale S.A.
InventorErmanno Filippi
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In an industrial scale ammonia synthesis process (10, 110), in which the hydrogen necessary for such synthesis is obtained by subjecting natural gas (5) to partial oxidation (16), with an oxygen-rich gas (6) and in the presence of steam (2), obtaining a gaseous mixture (7) that comprises hydrogen, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and water, said gaseous mixture (7) is firstly subjected to catalytic conversion (18) to convert part of the carbon monoxide into carbon dioxide, then to decarbonation (20) to remove the carbon dioxide (20a) and finally to purification (22) to reduce the unconverted carbon monoxide concentration.
Claims10
Industrial scale ammonia (3) synthesis process (10, 110), based upon a partial oxidation (16) of a natural gas (5), preferably methane, with an oxygen-rich gas (6) and in the presence of steam (2), obtaining a gaseous mixture (7) that comprises hydrogen, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and water, recovery of hydrogen from said mixture (7) and use thereof in said ammonia (3) synthesis, where for the recovery of hydrogen from the gaseous mixture (7), this is firstly subjected to catalytic conversion (18) to convert part of the carbon monoxide into carbon dioxide, then to decarbonation (20) to remove the carbon dioxide (20a) and finally to purification (22) to reduce the unconverted carbon monoxide concentration, characterized in that said catalytic conversion (18) is such that the concentration of said unconverted carbon monoxide (22a) is less than 1% and in that said purification (22) comprises a methanation reaction to transform said unconverted carbon monoxide into methane (22a).
Industrial scale ammonia (3) synthesis plant (10, 110), of the type comprising a partial oxidation apparatus (16), in which natural gas (5) is partially oxidized with an oxygen-rich gas (6), in the presence of steam (2), obtaining a gaseous mixture (7) that comprises hydrogen, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and water, a shift conversion section (18), in which part of the carbon monoxide is catalytically converted into carbon dioxide, a decarbonation apparatus (20) to remove the carbon dioxide (20a) and a purification apparatus (22) to reduce the unconverted carbon monoxide concentration, characterized in that said shift conversion section (18) is such that the concentration of said unconverted carbon monoxide (22a) is less than 1% and in that said purification apparatus (22) comprises a methanator to transform said unconverted carbon monoxide into methane (22a).
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.