Operating a urea plant poses challenges in managing the corrosive environment, especially in the high-pressure synthesis section.
Several mitigation strategies have been developed successfully to minimize severe corrosion and, subsequently, loss of containment scenarios. Nevertheless, loss of containment still occurs occasionally, for instance, due to a tube rupture in a high-pressure urea heat exchanger. The severity of such a mishap will result in the release of a large cloud of toxic ammonia.
Stamicarbon introduced Safurex® stainless steels as the material of construction more than 20 years ago, and to date, the failure rate for a rupture of a single Safurex® heat exchanger tube is less than 10-7. The application of Safurex® steels significantly improves the safety, reliability and availability of critical high-pressure urea equipment. This is also the case when exposed to severe process upset conditions and it offers excellent flexibility in plant operations. This paper presents some case histories to demonstrate this impressive achievement.

𝗥𝗲𝗴𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗻𝗼𝘄! 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗢𝗻𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗦𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗿
𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗼𝗽𝗶𝗰: 𝗢𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘂𝗿𝗲𝗮 𝗶𝗻𝗱𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘆.

Would you like to know how you can avoid unplanned shutdowns in urea production
- how can you minimize medium losses?
- how to increase conversion rates?

LESER and UreaKnowHow.com provide answers and solutions.

For the first time after COVID, we organise again our popular 5-Day Urea Training Program from 5-9 June 2023 in Amsterdam!
More than 1000 participants already highly rewarded this unique Training Program.
Take this opportunity to meet the most experienced trainers in our industry.
The 5-Day Training Program is designed for new as well as experienced managers, engineers and shift supervisors.

The 5-Day Training Program covers a wide range of topics:
- Introduction Urea Process Technologies,
- Corrosion theory & Overview of various corrosion phenomena in urea plants,
- Fluid Bed Granulation,
- Thermodynamics and Phase diagrams,
- Operational aspects and Troubleshooting techniques,
- Safety, Health & Environmental aspects,
- Atmospheric corrosion;
- Corrosion Under Insulation (CUI),
- Corrosion in steam and cooling water systems,
- Historical Overview of Materials of Construction in urea plants,
- High Pressure Synthesis equipment,
- High Pressure Piping & Valves,
- Corrosion Inspection Techniques and Inspection Program,
- CO2 Compressors design and operational issues,
- Revamp and debottlenecking technologies,
- Discussion of numerous Troubleshoot and Corrosion / Reliability Cases and Latest Innovations.

Register Now as the number of applicants is limited. Note we offer Group Discounts!

A common way to mitigate ammonia gas releases is to apply water spray curtains. It is a proven method, but since gaseous ammonia is invisible, it is difficult to direct and evaluate the effectivity of such actions. During an actual release event at a scanfeld monitored site the fire brigade was alerted and directed to the area.
Scanfeld visualizes the situation before, during, and after applying the water curtain. The gas concentration is overlaid in bright colors on b/w video stills. With the main wind direction from left to right, scanfeld shows how the ammonia cloud is effectively stopped by the water curtain.
The sequence of images is taken with about 8 min distance.

Selecting the correct corrosion-resistant material for a nitric acid plant can be critical. High-quality stainless steel with low impurities and optimized corrosion resistance will not only reduce downtime but also extend plant lifetime.
ALLEIMA offers corrosion-resistant materials for a nitric acid plant as solutions to reduce downtime and extend plant lifetime.

Just like pressure transmitters and pressure gauges, also wireless pressure sensors require protection from diaphragm seals due to the harsh process conditions. Here is a nice example of the Yokogawa’s LoRaWAN wireless XS530E Sushi sensor equipped with 2" class 400-600 RF BF diaphragm seals. This instrument has a span of 50 bar and suitable for extreme elevated temperatures with BSO-48 (up to 420°C).

According the end user (a large petrochemical company standardized on Badotherm diaphragm seals) this instrument replaces a traditional mechanical pressure gauge with diaphragm seals. The new solution is expected to send out the pressure on a given interval to the operations and rotating engineer. So the remote measurement is now digitalized which creates large efficiencies.

The AMMO LASER Leak Detection System has following features:
1. Most reliable system (refer to Risk Register Leak Detection Systems)
2. Monitors directly the complete liner surface
3. Continuously monitors the vacuum pressure and ammonia content
4. Introduces no risks for liner bulging and rupture
5. Works also when the synthesis pressure is low and when the liner sees most stresses (heating up, cooling down) and hence a leak detection system is important
6. Does not restrict the leaking flow and does not built up pressure or introduce risks for backflow (refer to Incident 19-005)
7. Is able to dilute the leak and hence minimize the risk of clogging
8. Enables leak detection also in case the grooves are clogged caused by solids from an earlier leak (no need to flush with steam or condensate)
9. Enables leak detection also in case the grooves are clogged caused by corrosion of carbon steel caused by an earlier leak
10. Enables leak detection also in case only one leak detection hole is present
11. Enables leak detection in case of bad design/fabrication of grooves
12. Enables leak detection in case of no grooves present
13. Enables leak detection in case there are connections between different leak detection compartments
14. Is able to distinguish false indication from an ammonia cloud in the atmosphere from a real liner leak. In fact this means it warns the operator for another leak in the urea synthesis section and proper actions can be taken
15. Requires tracing and insulation of only a part of the tubing
16. Can combine one ammonia analyzer for multiple equipment items (even from more urea lines)
17. Gives leak rate and calculates leak size
18. Includes a continuous detection for the presence of any liquid
19. Allows safe and simple introduction of leak detection tracer for pinpointing the leak
20. The AMMO LASER ammonia analyzer is the most accurate and reliable ammonia analyzer as it provides a DCS alarm in case out of order, is ammonia specific and is self-calibrating
21. The AMMO LASER ammonia analyzer can be combined with up to seven other NH3 emission sources monitoring leading to lower ammonia consumption costs
22. Requires no inert gas supply and only a low power consumption
23. Already several successful references since 2017
24. A Guaranteed Pay Back Time resulting from shorter shut down periods as one can find the leak faster, knows the leak size and is able to assure no damage to carbon steel pressure bearing wall
25. Plus a Guaranteed Pay Back Time resulting from lower NH3 consumption figures
26. SAIPEM, as owner and licensor of the Snamprogetti Urea Technology, approves the AMMO LASER Leak Detection System for application in all its plants

Only a few weeks left until the "MAN Digital Industry Summit" takes place.
Don't miss out on your chance to hear all the latest news directly from our experts, including information about developments in our solutions and services.
On our website, you'll now find the agenda for this event. We've included interesting talks about hydrogen production (H-TEC), carbon capture, utilization & storage (CCUS), digital products & service agreements, Omnicare (our one-stop service solution for MAN and non-MAN equipment), and turnaround & upgrade solutions.
During the exciting panel discussions, we'll also be talking to experts from BASF, Aker CC, thyssenkrupp Uhde, Amazon Web Services and many more.

The company has obtained 12th place ranking, further improving its position from 2021.
San Donato Milanese (Italy), September 6, 2022 - Saipem has been confirmed in first place among Italian companies in the Top 250 International Contractors Engineering News-Record (ENR) ranking, the leading US magazine for construction and engineering industry professionals.
ENR’s Top 250 gathers the most important engineering and construction companies, classifying them on the basis of the revenues deriving from projects executed outside their country of origin with a focus on specific sectors of activity and on different geographical areas.
Saipem placed 12th among international companies, further improving its position from 2021, and ranked first place in the category which includes marine energy infrastructures, pipelines, petrochemical plants and refineries, confirming its 2021 leadership position. At geographical level, the company is positioned at fourth and sixth places respectively for the specific Middle East and Africa rankings.
Saipem's presence in ENR's Top 250 ranking is an important recognition of the company's expertise in the engineering and execution of complex projects, carried out in accordance with the highest environmental sustainability standards.

In partnership with Salzgitter Mannesmann, NobelClad tested the validity of explosion welding as a better, viable option for clad induction bends. The results not only proved that explosion welding indeed is the most reliable option but in many cases also the most economical choice.