Indian Farmers and Fertilizers Co-operative`s Phulpur Unit comprises of two Ammonia and Urea manufacturing complexes which got commissioned in the years 1981 and 1997 respectively. The Phulpur Unit supplies over 1.7 million tons p.a. of neem coated urea to the farmers in the eastern region of the country. It also produces 0.6 million tons p.a. of ammonia. Over the past few years, the Phulpur Unit has successfully adopted new technological advancements and implemented innovative modifications to increase production capacity and reduce energy consumption and environmental footprint. 

 

IFFCO Aonla which was commissioned in 1988 has a 260 hectares facility which falls within a 200 Km radius of the world famous Jim Corbett National Park. It produces ammonia and urea similar to the Phulphur unit and has a production capacity of 1.148 million tons p.a. of ammonia and 2 million tons p.a. of urea.

 

Both the plants had to install incinerators for identical applications. The requirement arose on account of ammonia stock build up in the complexes due to shortage of carbon dioxide.  Naphtha was being used as feedstock and fuel. This was changed to LNG which led to ammonia stock build up. In order to make up for the deficiency of CO2 after use of LNG, a CDR (Carbon Dioxide Recovery unit) was installed with proprietary technology from Mitsubishi of Japan.

 

The process is based on absorption of CO2 in amine based proprietary solvent from Mitsubishi which is liberated at high temperature in the regenerator. SOx or NO2 react with the solution in the CO2 absorber and form heat stable salts. When the

salt content in the solution reaches the maximum limit, the reclaimer is operated to boil down the solution so that the salt is concentrated to sludge to be discharged. The reclaimer operates as a simple batch distiller. The degradation products have higher boiling temperature than the solution itself. Hence only vapor leaves the kettle of the reclaimer and the degradation products remain as reclaimed waste in the reclaimer shell. The reclaimed waste is sent to the incinerator for disposal.

 

We received tender RFQs for two incinerators with similar configurations from both the IFFCO plants for disposal of this reclaimed waste. The system consisted of primary and secondary chambers, liquid waste disposal system, wet venturi scrubber, 30 metre stack, MCC, PLC control panel and complete civil work.

 

This was quite challenging as the MCC panel was flame-proof and civil work was part of the contract requiring mobilisation of materials and labour from local sources.

 

The system was subject to FAT where performance tests meeting several parameters had to be carried out to the satisfaction of inspectors and the end user.

 

The installations were done successfully in both the plants and the incinerators are running for many years now since 2010.

 

A similar project was done for another fertilizer plant from a neighbouring country for a similar application in a plant recovering CO2.

 

We continue to provide spares and service to these clients and the system has a high uptime giving reliable performance for more than a decade.