Experiences and Achievements with New Grades of Safurex®
Stamicarbon developed and introduced Safurex®, a corrosion resistant super duplex stainless steel, more than 2 decades ago. The material has proven to be an excellent corrosion resistant material of construction for high pressure urea equipment and piping.
Based on Stamicarbon’s philosophy of continuous innovation, the Safurex® brand has been expanded to include other grades with improved mechanical and corrosion resistant properties, suitable for service in the harsh corrosive ammonium carbamate environments at urea synthesis process conditions.
The new grades, Safurex® Star and Safurex® Degree have been developed and tested under harsher conditions compared to industry standards. They have also been exposed in industrial urea (Stamicarbon and competitor plants) and melamine plants with excellent results.
The new materials have been approved by code issuing bodies and used as material of construction for several high pressure equipment in urea plants all over the world.
About Kirk Ofei
Mr. Kirk Ofei is the Materials & Corrosion Specialist of Stamicarbon B.V. in the Netherlands. In this role Mr. Ofei is responsible for the materials & corrosion expertise within the organization.
The main challenge in operating a urea plant is to combat the high corrosiveness of the ammonium carbamate which is formed as intermediate product in the synthesis of Urea Fertilizer.
He also has a background in alloy development for applications in the chemical and automotive industries, working with the Materials Innovation Institute at the Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands.
Mr. Kirk Ofei earned his Master of Science degree in Materials Science at the University of Aveiro Portugal and Aalborg University Denmark.
