Process for nitric acid production
AssigneeCasale SA
InventorsErmanno Filippi, Raffaele Ostuni, Francesco Baratto
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Abstract
Integrated process for the synthesis of ammonia and nitric acid including: a) production of an ammonia make-up synthesis gas, comprising steam reforming of a hydrocarbon feedstock under provision of steam reforming heat; catalytic conversion of said make-up synthesis gas into ammonia; catalytic oxidation of a stream of ammonia obtaining a process gas; absorption of said process gas with water obtaining nitric acid, wherein at least a portion of the steam reforming heat is recovered from said hot process gas.
Claims23
1-22. (canceled)
An integrated process for synthesis of ammonia and nitric acid, the integrated process comprising:
- a synthesis of ammonia including:
- a) production of an ammonia make-up synthesis gas, including steam reforming of a hydrocarbon feedstock (NG) under provision of steam reforming heat;
- and
- b) catalytic conversion of the ammonia make-up synthesis gas into ammonia;
- and
- a synthesis of nitric acid including:
- c) catalytic oxidation of a stream of ammonia, obtaining a hot process gas containing NO2;
- and
- d) absorption of the hot process gas in water, wherein NO2 react with water to produce a product stream containing nitric acid and a tail gas containing nitrogen;
- wherein the steam reforming heat is recovered from the hot process gas obtained from the catalytic oxidation of the stream of ammonia.
A plant, comprising:
- a section for synthesis of ammonia and a section for synthesis of nitric acid, wherein the section for the synthesis of ammonia includes:
- a front-end section for synthesis of an ammonia make-up synthesis gas, including a gas heated reformer receiving steam reforming heat and a feed stream including steam and hydrocarbons;
- and
- a synthesis loop, wherein the ammonia make-up synthesis gas is converted into ammonia;
- wherein the section for the synthesis of nitric acid includes:
- an oxidation reactor, wherein a stream of ammonia is oxidized to provide a hot process gas containing NO2;
- and
- an absorption tower, wherein the process gas is absorbed in water and the water reacts with NO2 to provide a product stream containing nitric acid and a tail gas containing nitrogen,
- wherein the gas heated reformer is traversed by the hot process gas as hot medium, thus providing at least part of the steam reforming heat.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.