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to use this information to take corrective action and prevent recurrences. Stamicarbon has been recording major process safety incidents in urea facilities for 48 years, but because they are on the whole so few and far between it is questionable whether they provide sufficient input to identify common causes and inadequate protective measures for them to be corrected before a serious incident actually takes place. Near misses and lower-consequence incidents are increasingly thought of as the most important indicators of major accidents; therefore, we have expanded our database of major process safety accidents to include them in the interests of improving understanding of process safety.  Besides our major incident database we also consult internet news channels and fertilizer industry associations to find more incidents within urea manufacturing facilities. But it has to be acknowledged that we will only hear about major events from these sources; lower-consequence incidents are unlikely to see the light of day. So we are left with lagging indicators instead of the leading indicators that are so badly needed!  Also, incident databases at customers’ individual sites contain insufficient data points to uncover common causes. This is why urea manufacturers need to work together and build an incident database from which all can benefit. To enable the urea community to learn more from near misses and low-consequence accidents, Stamicarbon is launching a process incident sharing portal service for its customers. The service will contain the following:  • Stamicarbon will host the HSE platform and subscribing members can access the posted HSE information at any time, free of charge.   • Subscribing members will periodically receive a report by e-mail to learn about relevant accidents and near misses and possible improvements in terms of process design and operational practices.   • Customers who report an incident or near miss to Stamicarbon can receive tailored HSE support under an applicable service agreement. • The incident report and other relevant HSE information that Stamicarbon considers appropriate to share with its customers can also be downloaded from the HSE portal. The procedure for reporting incidents is as follows.  • To obtain access to the HSE portal the customer will first need to register on the Stamicarbon HSE portal http://hse.stamicarbon.com . • Customers will initially provide a rough description of their process safety event by filling out a simple incident notification form, which is designed to minimize their administrative effort.  • Stamicarbon’s HSE engineer will contact the issuer of the notification to find out in detail exactly what happened. Further administration will be handled by Stamicarbon.

long to the so-called accident plants. For these plants it is required that the security is improved constantly. The management wants to constantly improve the environmental-protection and upgrading the technological conditions to increase the production and to save energy.

nless steel loose liners are commonly applied. With a loose liner a hazardous situation may arise if a leak occurs and carbamate containing fluids enters the space between liner and carbon steel. For this reason Stamicarbon designed a system which continuously monitors for leaks to allow safe operation of said equipment.

tem (CCW). The HP Scrubber is equipped with 316 L UG heat exchanger tubes (BC.01 according Stamicarbon Specification A4- 18005). The presence of ammonia in the CCW indicated a leak from tube side (process side) to the shell side (cooling water side). In contrary to the frequent cases of chloride stress corrosion cracks (Cl- SCC) observed in HP Carbamate Condensers, Cl- SCC cracks are seldom observed in HP Scrubbers. The integrity of the said HP Scrubber was compromised, since it was not possible to pinpoint and repair the leak. It was decided by plant management to replace the HP Scrubber as soon as possible. Schoeller Bleckmann Nitec (SBN) in Austria was awarded the contract to supply a new HP Scrubber with a delivery time of only 8 months. Normally a delivery time of 10 to 12 months is anticipated. In order to meet this very short delivery time, SBN and Stamicarbon teamed-up to speed up the engineering and fabrication work. HP Scrubber was transported from Austria to the Middle East by airfreight. In this contribution the difficulty to locate a small leak is described as well as the key issues to manufacture the new HP Scrubber within such short delivery time. 

the report. Conclusions and recommendations based on key learning’s are given.

has been given to developing and optimizing the synthesis- and recycling-section in the urea plant, that in the last decade increased attention has been given to developments and optimizations regarding Urea shaping technology (granulation and prilling), whereas over the entire Urea history, also much attention has been given to storage and handling, indicating the importance of product quality, storage and handling. The most important problems occurring in Storage and Handling are directly or indirectly related to (results of) caking, like lump-formation and dusting. Therefore the mechanism of caking of Urea has been made the subject of a paper because we realize that large efforts and considerable amounts of money can be involved with the consequences of caking. In this paper the mechanism of caking via water sorption and desorption is discussed. Especially the caking, spreading through a heap of Urea, observed even in Urea of good quality will be highlighted. This is often caused by moisture migration. The mechanisms of caking are then explained by discussing some examples from practice.

ise and strength of Stamicarbon technology. 

has been given to developing and optimizing the synthesis- and recycling-section in the urea plant, that inthe last decade increased attention has been given to developments and optimizations regarding Urea shaping technology (granulation and prilling), whereas over the entire Urea history, also much attention has been given to storage and handling, indicating the importance of product quality, storage and handling. The most important problems occurring in Storage and Handling are directly or indirectly related to (results of) caking, like lump-formation and dusting. Therefore the mechanism of caking of Urea has been made the subject of a paper because we realize that large efforts and considerable amounts of money can be involved with the consequences of caking. In this paper the mechanism of caking via water sorption and desorption is discussed. Especially the caking, spreading through a heap of Urea, observed even in Urea of good quality will be highlighted. This is often caused by moisture migration. The mechanisms of caking are then explained by discussing some examples from practice.

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possible ways to eliminate ammonia emissions from continuous emission sources in the urea melt synthesis and purification sections, as well as from discontinuous ammonia emissions during upset conditions. Stamicarbon flare designs and recent innovations with regards to the thermal treatment of ammonia are discussed. Guidelines for a safe design of flares and for a so called “ADVANCE DESIGNTM Thermal Treatment” system are given. The paper highlights and explains the catalytic and non-catalytic combustion technologies offered and elaborates on the pros and cons of these technologies. It is shown that for eliminating continuous ammonia emissions during normal operation, the ADVANCE DESIGNTM Thermal Treatment system offered by Stamicarbon has significant advantages in comparison with flaring. Not only is the environmental impact significantly less; also both investment and operating costs are much lower.

Stripper replaced a bi-metallic designed Snamprogetti stripper in 2003 which suffered extreme corrosion issues within a short period after startup in the bottom channel section of the vessel that caused persistent operational outages and huge financial losses. The problems encountered with the original HP bi-metallic stripper and results of the decision to replace the bi-metallic tube stripper with a HP Safurex® stripper are addressed. The subject Safurex® stripper was in service for 850 operational days from March 2003 up until November 2006, after which the subject stripper was returned to Canada and installed in another Snamprogetti urea plant in 2007. The subject stripper has been in operation in Canada since 3Q 2007 and has had no issues in its new location as of this writing.

n with Stamicarbon’s fluidized-bed urea granulation technology. By SpiralMist quenching and accelerating the granulation exhaust gas through MicroMist™ Venturi (MMV) tubes, particulate emissions as low as 10 mg/Nm3 can be achieved. An additional polishing Star Wet Electrostatic Precipitator (Star WESP) can further reduce particulate emissions to as low as 5 mg/Nm3. This paper discloses the fascinating story of the conceptual development, pilot testing, detailed design and fabrication of the Stamicarbon-Envirocare MMV scrubbers for two new grass-root urea granulation plants in the USA.

ralChem co-operates in joint research with Moscow State University and Stamicarbon. UralChem is to revamp the urea plant of its subsidiary in Perm, the operating company Mineral Fertilisers OJSC (PMF) Perm

f publications available, but little data for validation

wanted interconnections for the minimum of investments. Stamicarbon was asked to come up with options for realizing that aspiration, making maximum use of the existing equipment or – if needed – reusing second-hand HP equipment available from elsewhere within the company. Stamicarbon presented two options, the first based on the customer’s initial revamp ideas, the second on a custom adaptation of Stamicarbon’s EVOLVE FINISHING™ UAN Design. The benefits of the EVOLVE FINISHING™ UAN Design (the second option) over the “conventional” revamp (the first option) were so evident that no further discussion was needed. The project, option 2, is currently being executed. This paper shows that even older plants can be brought up to date for limited investment.

acity.

an producers • Investments drivers for North American projects • Key take-aways

Key take-aways

vely hit the market?

ttempts making such urea models have been limited in scope and usage, due to the rapid rise in complexity, execution time, and difficulties encountered as model size increases to encompass sufficient fidelity and scope to address overall economic impact to  the business. Urea plant models however can encapsulate a large amount of process knowledge and companies start realizing significant value from the use of these models in offline and online model based applications. Such applications include real-time optimization, model predictive control, data reconciliation, virtual sensors, process performance monitoring and total plant monitoring systems to name a few. This paper gives an overview on Stamicarbon’s capabilities and products related to urea plant modeling. These models are typically implemented in the ADVANCE and EVOLVE life-cycle of a urea plant. In the LAUNCH phase, grass root plants can apply the models to optimize consumption and emission figures.  It allows urea producers to stay competitive with production improvements, monitoring and detection, staff training and full lifecycle support. Further, feedback will be given on the EVOLVE OPTIMIZER™ project at OCI in the Netherlands. This has been in operation since 2012.