Johnson Matthey Public Limited Company

Johnson Matthey Inc.

Johnson Matthey Davy Technologies Limited

John David Pach

Daniel Thomas Sheldon

Ola Erlandsson

Andreas Magnusson

Ian Richard Barton

Hsing-Chuan Yang

Thomas Davison

Richard Ian Johnston

Graham Charles Hinton

Matthew John Cousins

Kar Chi Yiu

Michael Davies

Andreas Erik Johan Magnusson

David Wails

Madhanakrishnan Janardhanan

Anatoly L'vovich Yelagin

Mikhail Victorovich Tararyshkin

Darren Ward

Kate McFarlane

Sam Barker

Colin William Park

Alan Ingham

Kate Mcfarlane

A method is described for controlling a furnace containing a plurality of catalyst-containing tubes heated by a combustion gas generated by a plurality of burners, said method comprising the steps of: (i) measuring path-averaged combustion gas temperatures on multiple paths through the furnace using tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy, (ii) periodically measuring temperatures of surfaces within the furnace to obtain periodic surface temperature information, (iii) entering the path-averaged combustion gas temperatures and periodic surface temperature information into a computer model of the furnace, said model comprising parameters for controlling the furnace; and (iv) using the computer model and the temperature information to obtain optimised parameters for controlling the furnace. A system for performing the method is also described.

Furnace control method

A process for the co-production of methanol and ammonia is described comprising the steps of: (a) forming a first synthesis gas stream by reacting a first portion of a hydrocarbon feedstock and steam in a steam reformer, (b) forming a second synthesis gas stream in parallel to the first synthesis gas stream by reacting a second portion of the hydrocarbon feedstock with an oxygen-containing gas and steam in an autothermal reformer, (c) synthesising methanol from a first process gas comprising the first synthesis gas stream, and (d) synthesising ammonia from a second process gas prepared from the second synthesis gas stream, wherein a purge stream containing hydrogen is recovered from the methanol synthesis step (c) and a portion of the purge gas stream is fed to the autothermal reformer and/or the second synthesis gas in step (b).

Process for producing methanol and ammonia

A method is described for revamping an ammonia production facility said ammonia production facility having a front end comprising one or more reformers fed with a hydrocarbon feedstock at a hydrocarbon feed stock feed rate and a high-temperature shift reactor fed with a reformed gas obtained from said one or more reformers and containing a fixed bed of iron-containing water-gas shift catalyst, said front end operating at a first steam-to-carbon ratio and a first pressure drop, said method comprising the steps of (i) replacing the iron-containing water-gas shift catalyst with a low-steam water-gas shift catalyst to form a modified front end, (ii) operating the modified front end at a second steam-to-carbon ratio and a second pressure drop, wherein the second steam-to-carbon ratio is at least 0.2 less than the first steam-to-carbon ratio and the second pressure drop is less than the first pressure drop, and (iii) increasing the hydrocarbon feed stock feed rate to said one or more reformers.

Process for revamping an ammonia plant

A process for the production of formaldehyde-stabilised urea is described comprising the steps of: (a) generating a synthesis gas; (b) subjecting the synthesis gas to one or more stages of water-gas shift in one or more water-gas shift reactors to form a shifted gas; (c) cooling the shifted gas to below the dew point and recovering condensate to form a dried shifted gas; (d) recovering carbon dioxide from the dried shifted gas in a carbon dioxide removal unit to form a carbon dioxide-depleted synthesis gas; (e) synthesising methanol from the carbon dioxide-depleted synthesis gas in a methanol synthesis unit and recovering the methanol and a methanol synthesis off-gas; (f) subjecting at least a portion of the recovered methanol to oxidation with air to form formaldehyde in a stabiliser production unit; (g) subjecting the methanol synthesis off-gas to methanation in a methanation reactor containing a methanation catalyst to form an ammonia synthesis gas; (h) synthesising ammonia from the ammonia synthesis gas in an ammonia production unit and recovering the ammonia; (i) reacting a portion of the ammonia and at least a portion of the recovered carbon dioxide stream in a urea production unit to form a urea stream; and (j) stabilising the urea by mixing the urea stream and a stabiliser prepared using the formaldehyde produced in the stabiliser production unit, wherein the carbon dioxide removal unit operates by means of absorption using a liquid absorbent and comprises an absorbent regeneration unit, wherein the process includes recovering a carbon dioxide-containing gas stream from the absorbent regeneration unit, compressing at least a portion of the recovered carbon dioxide-containing gas stream to form a compressed carbon dioxide-containing gas stream and passing the compressed carbon dioxide-containing gas stream to the methanol synthesis unit.

Process for the production of formaldehyde-stabilized urea

A process for producing formaldehyde-stabilised urea is described comprising generating a synthesis gas, subjecting the synthesis gas to water-gas shift to form a shifted gas; recovering carbon dioxide from the shifted gas; synthesising methanol from the carbon dioxide-depleted synthesis gas; subjecting recovered methanol to oxidation; subjecting the methanol synthesis off-gas to methanation; synthesising ammonia from the ammonia synthesis gas and recovering the ammonia; reacting ammonia and recovered carbon dioxide stream to form a urea stream; and stabilising the urea by mixing the urea stream and a stabiliser prepared using the recovered formaldehyde, wherein a portion of the synthesis gas by-passes either the one or more of the water-gas shift reactors, carbon dioxide removal unit, or water-gas shift reactors and the carbon dioxide removal unit used in the process.

Integrated process for the production of formaldehyde-stabilised urea

An integrated process for the production of a formaldehyde-stabilised urea is described comprising the steps of: (a) generating a synthesis gas comprising hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and steam in a synthesis gas generation unit; (b) dividing the synthesis gas into a first synthesis gas stream and a smaller second synthesis gas stream; (c) subjecting the first synthesis gas stream to one or more stages of water-gas shift in one or more water-gas shift reactors to form a shifted gas; (d) cooling the shifted gas to below the dew point and recovering condensate to form a dried shifted gas; (e) recovering carbon dioxide from the dried shifted gas in a carbon dioxide removal unit to form a carbon dioxide-depleted synthesis gas; (f) subjecting the carbon dioxide-depleted synthesis gas to a stage of methanation in one or more methanation reactors to form an ammonia synthesis gas; (g) synthesising ammonia from the ammonia synthesis gas in an ammonia production unit and recovering the ammonia; (h) reacting a portion of the ammonia and at least a portion of the recovered carbon dioxide stream in a urea production unit to form a urea stream; and (i) stabilising the urea by mixing the urea stream and a stabiliser prepared using formaldehyde to form a stabilised urea, wherein the formaldehyde is generated by steps comprising; (1) passing the second portion of synthesis gas through a scrubber to remove contaminants therefrom and form a scrubbed synthesis gas; (2) synthesising methanol from the scrubbed synthesis gas in a methanol synthesis unit, and recovering the methanol and a methanol synthesis off-gas; (3) combining the methanol synthesis off-gas with the shifted gas and (4) subjecting at least a portion of the recovered methanol to oxidation with air in a formaldehyde stabiliser production unit to produce formaldehyde.

A process is described for the production of formaldehyde, comprising (a) subjecting methanol to oxidation with air in a formaldehyde production unit thereby producing a formaldehyde-containing stream; (b) separating said formaldehyde-containing stream into a formaldehyde product stream and a formaldehyde vent gas stream; wherein the vent gas stream, optionally after treatment in a vent gas treatment unit, is passed to one or more stages of: (i) synthesis gas generation, (ii) carbon dioxide removal, (iii) methanol synthesis or (iv) urea synthesis.

Process for the production of formaldehyde

A process for production of ammonia includes: providing a reaction stream including carbon monoxide and hydrogen; passing the reaction stream and steam over a water gas shift catalyst in a catalytic shift reactor, forming a shifted gas mixture depleted in carbon monoxide and enriched in hydrogen; passing the shifted gas mixture with an oxygen-containing gas over a selective oxidation catalyst at &#x2265;175&#xb0; C., forming a selectively oxidized gas stream with a portion of the carbon monoxide converted to carbon dioxide; removing some of the carbon dioxide from the selectively oxidized gas stream in a carbon dioxide removal unit; passing the carbon dioxide depleted stream over a methanation catalyst in a methanator to form a methanated gas stream, optionally adjusting its hydrogen:nitrogen molar ratio to form an ammonia synthesis gas; and passing the ammonia synthesis gas over an ammonia synthesis catalyst in an ammonia converter to form ammonia.

Process for making ammonia

A method for loading an axial-radial flow vessel containing a bed of a particulate catalyst having a radial-flow portion and an axial-flow portion supported on and in fluid communication with the radial flow portion, includes: (i) placing a first catalyst material in the radial-flow portion and (ii) placing a second catalyst material in the axial-flow portion, wherein the second catalyst material has a smaller particle size than the first catalyst material. A vessel loaded with first and second catalyst materials is also described.

Method of loading a vessel

The present disclosure relates to an integrated process for the production of formaldehyde-stabilized urea, starting with producing synthesis gas and including the preparation of methanol, ammonia, urea, and formaldehyde in amounts appropriate for the final product.

Integrated process for the production of formaldehyde-stabilized urea

A process for increasing the hydrogen content of a synthesis gas including hydrogen and carbon oxides and having a carbon monoxide content &#x2267;45 mole % on a dry-gas basis, including the steps of:

Water gas shift reaction process

A process for increasing the hydrogen content of a synthesis gas including hydrogen and carbon oxides and having a carbon monoxide content&#x2267;45 mole % on a dry-gas basis, including the steps of:

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Cleveland, United Kingdom

John David Pach