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Technical Paper September 2018

Stamicarbon’s Ultra Low Energy Design

Author
MASSIMO GORI
Stamicarbon BV
Sittard, The Netherlands

Summary
Stamicarbon has already sold a license of its latest urea technology, the Ultra Low Energy Design, which
cuts the energy consumption and the cooling water consumption of a urea melt plant down to record
low levels.
Launch Melt™ Ultra Low Energy Design is Stamicarbon’s ultimate technological statement (so far) and
sets the new benchmark (again) for the lowest OPEX in the urea industry. Most urea processes are
based on the so-called "N=2" heat integration design, in which the heat supplied to the plant is used
twice. In the Ultra Low Energy Design Stamicarbon has gone one step further with a "N=3" design, in
which the heat supplied is used three times. Accordingly, much less steam is needed.
The Ultra Low Energy Design embraces and builds on the solid principles of the Launch Melt™ Pool
Condenser Design (formerly known as Urea 2000Plus®process): pool condensation, compact and
simplified design and the use of Safurex®, the most innovative material for urea application.
The Ultra Low Energy Design is also a powerful revamp tool, not only for conventional urea plants but
also for the CO2 stripping plants. It can be used for reduction in energy consumption and also for
increasing the plant capacity.

1
 Stamicarbon’s Ultra Low Energy
Design
MASSIMO GORI
Stamicarbon BV
Sittard, The Netherlands

Stamicarbon has already sold a license of its latest urea technology, the Ultra Low Energy
Design, which cuts the energy consumption and the cooling water consumption of a urea melt
plant down to record low levels.
Launch Melt™ Ultra Low Energy Design is Stamicarbon’s ultimate technological statement
(so far) and sets the new benchmark (again) for the lowest OPEX in the urea industry.
Most urea processes are based on the so-called "N=2" heat integration design, in which the
heat supplied to the plant is used twice. In the Ultra Low Energy Design Stamicarbon has gone
one step further with a "N=3" design, in which the heat supplied is used three times.
Accordingly, much less steam is needed.
The Ultra Low Energy Design embraces and builds on the solid principles of the Launch
Melt™ Pool Condenser Design (formerly known as Urea 2000Plus®process): pool
condensation, compact and simplified design and the use of Safurex®, the most innovative
material for urea application.
The Ultra Low Energy Design is also a powerful revamp tool, not only for conventional urea
plants but also for the CO2 stripping plants. It can be used for reduction in energy consumption
and also for increasing the plant capacity.

1. STAMICARBON LAUNCH MELTTM POOL CONDENSER

Originally launched as Urea 2000Plus® in 1994, now named the Stamicarbon Launch Melt™ Pool Condenser
Design and Launch Melt™ Pool Reactor Design quickly became a de facto standard in the fertilizer industry.
To date more than 40 units have been licensed and notwithstanding the years elapsed, the industry is still
enjoying the benefits of this concept: a proven reliable design, compact, easy to operate and with minimum
maintenance requirements.
By the time of its inception, the Launch Melt™ Pool Condenser Design and Launch Melt™ Pool Reactor
Design introduced several innovations. Some of them are still unique to Stamicarbon, on others, competitors
tried to catch up.

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 M. Gori

Fig. 1: Shahjalal urea plant Bangladesh

In the meantime, Stamicarbon's Launch Melt™ series has evolved. Lots of subtle details, lots of operability
improvements, lots of refinements with respect to the original already robust proposition. Consistent with the
full lifecycle policy of Stamicarbon, such improvements have also been made available to past projects.
These improvements together also started aggregating into a number of new process concepts.
2. REACHING THE LIMITS OF OPTIMIZATION: N=2
In a urea stripping process (Fig 2), medium pressure (MP) extraction steam from the turbine is typically fed
to the shell side of a stripper. This basically applies to all stripping processes. Most of the heat is recovered
in the high pressure Pool Condenser (or Pool Reactor for smaller plants) in the form of low pressure (LP)
steam that is used to provide the thermal duty for the LP section and (partly) for the water treatment plant.
Additional excess LP vapor is recycled to the CO2 compressor turbine or sent to battery limits (BL).

Fig 2: Launch Melt™ Pool Condenser Design HP section, LP Section and Evaporation

Looking at the matter from a steam point of view, a portion of the MP steam fed to the urea plant is used to
produce the excess LP steam that is sent to BL of the urea plant. When asked to optimize some existing

264 Nitrogen + Syngas 2018 International Conference & Exhibition (Gothenburg 26 February-1 March 2018)
 Stamicarbon’s Ultra Low Energy Design

urea plants, Stamicarbon tried to minimize the steam exported. From a simplified point of view, when the
exported steam is reduced the plant rebalances. The LP section has to absorb the thermal duty that is not
being exported. To allow higher heat exchange, a higher delta T is required, so LP steam goes higher in
temperature. Consequence of that is that the delta T across the Pool Condenser/Reactor is reduced and
less stripper vapors can be condensed. Hence, as a result of the plant rebalancing, stripper efficiency is
slightly reduced and less extraction steam to the shell of the stripper is required. That allows steam savings
up to about 50 kg / MT urea and a marginal decrease in the operating temperature of the stripper, however
good at slightly lowering biuret and at easing the life of the materials. On the other hand, due to the higher
load to the LP section, the LP carbamate recycle increases.

Fig. 3: N=2 (steam used two times)

The optimization allowed Stamicarbon to reach the inherent limits of such design: MP steam can be fully
used twice (Fig.3). First in the stripper and then in the LP section and in the water treatment section. No
waste. We call it an N=2 design.
3. SETTING THE ULTIMATE REFERENCE (SO FAR): N=3
Every new Stamicarbon person receives an in-depth training on urea technology. One of the key topics
refers to where we stand today and where we can realistically get with our technology. The possibility of
using the steam three times in a urea plant was one of these ideal targets.
In order to be able to have a process with N=3, it is necessary to condense steam (1st use), evaporate and
condense again (2nd use) and evaporate and condense once more (3rd step) (Fig.4). Each evaporation or
condensation step requires an exchange surface with a minimum delta temperature across it. That calls for
three pressure levels and the sum of all the temperature differences across exchange surfaces must fit within
a well-defined boundary: the difference between the temperature of steam to the stripper and the
temperature of the solution leaving the urea plant. The latter is connected to the temperature of available
cooling water.

Fig. 4: N=3 (steam used three times)

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 M. Gori

The problem cannot be solved by just having extremely big exchange surfaces, so that the delta T across
exchange surface can be kept to a minimum. Even if cost was not an issue, urea and carbamate provide a
further complication. Given a certain concentration in a stream, the temperature of that stream has to be
kept above a certain temperature to avoid the risk of solid-liquid biphasic flow (or even worse, full
solidifications). Some may want to take that shortcut, but that is not acceptable for Stamicarbon, as we are
committed to provide reliable and operable plants. In a nutshell, this outlines the complexity of the problem.
3.1 Pool condensation provides the room: fitting three heat utilization
steps within a limited delta T
Resuming the problem, getting to a process with N=3 requires a plant with three levels of pressure and
temperature, but the available delta T, as defined by the difference between the saturated temperature of
extraction steam and the cooling water temperature, is limited. In addition, there is the need to stay clear of
combinations of temperature and concentration involving the risk of carbamate precipitation.

Fig. 5: A flash tank allows to reduce temperature of urea solution and to exchange heat in the pool
condenser/reactor.

The insertion of a flash tank downstream the liquid outlet of the stripper does the trick (Fig. 5). Urea solution
is flashed to about 2.6 MPa and temperature is reduced. This allows to avoid installing a dedicated heater
in the medium pressure rectifying column. Indeed, the temperature of the urea solution is low enough that
such equipment can be substituted by a pass inside the Pool Condenser/Reactor tube bundle, thus allowing
to effectively reuse heat once without having to produce steam. This is a big saving in delta T that is made
possible by the very high efficiency of heat exchange in the pool condensation concept. The rest is
straightforward. Vapors from the MP flash tank are used to rectify the re-heated urea solution coming from
the second tube bundle of the Pool Condenser/Reactor (Fig.6).

Fig. 6: Vapors from the MP flash tank are used to rectify the urea solution that has been reheated in the
Pool Reactor. Vapours are then further used in the first stage evaporator

266 Nitrogen + Syngas 2018 International Conference & Exhibition (Gothenburg 26 February-1 March 2018)
 Stamicarbon’s Ultra Low Energy Design

Vapors from the MP flash operation and the rectifying column are merged with off gas from the urea reactor
and used to provide condensing heat shell side of the first stage evaporator. Accordingly, the HP scrubber
can be eliminated.
3.2 Safurex® is here to help: the mechanical design of a twin bundle
pool condenser/reactor
The quest for ultimate efficiency in the urea plant brings a significant change to the well-established Launch
Melt™ Pool Condenser/Reactor Design. There are now two tube bundles. One of them producing the steam
that is driving the LP section and, partially, the water treatment. The other reheats urea solution circulating
at medium pressure. This has mechanical implications, as the second tube bundle is in contact with
carbamate both inside and outside. A different design of the tubesheet had to be developed in order to cope
with the challenge of a more complex flow arrangement and of the corrosive media inside and outside of the
tubes. Safurex® once again provided the solution, thanks to a less known property of it. Safurex® is indeed
not only resistant to carbamate passive corrosion, but its thermal exchange coefficient pretty much coincides
with the thermal exchange coefficient of carbon steel. This makes connection between Safurex® and carbon
steel very easy to handle, resulting in a design that merges simplicity with reliability.
3.3 Less than 560 kg / MT Urea: Introducing LAUNCH MELTTM Ultra
Low Energy Design
The above paragraphs explained how Stamicarbon came to define a new process configuration based on:
- Double bundle pool condenser/reactor;
- Adiabatic flash at MP ;
- Utilization of a simplified MP section;
- Removal of HP scrubber;
- Utilization of reactor off gas and MP vapors to run the first stage of the evaporation.

Fig. 7: LAUNCH MELT™ Ultra Low Energy Design

The new process configuration (Fig.7), utilizing the heat three times (N=3), features an incredibly low steam
consumption: less than 560 kg steam per metric ton of Urea!
The new design is called Launch MeltTM Ultra Low Energy Design and represents the ultimate statement in
urea technology so far.
3.4 A powerful revamp tool to reach state-of-the-art performance
The Ultra Low Energy Design is also a powerful addition to the revamp toolbox of Stamicarbon for the
upgrade of urea stripping plants.
Every design has to be tailored to the specific revamp project, but each individual tool, which can be
combined with others, can bring characteristic performance improvements and advantages.

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The Ultra Low Energy design can bring significantly higher urea production by keeping the flowrate of
extraction steam unchanged. A possible approach is:
- To substitute an existing HP carbamate condenser with a double bundle pool condenser or pool
reactor, factoring into the equipment the additional reaction volume required by the increased
capacity;
- To install a modified Stamicarbon capacity add-on, a peculiar MP section featuring a MP stripper
and the flash tank needed to recycle urea solution from the HP stripper to the second bundle of the
pool reactor/condenser;
- To install a modified first stage evaporator, with construction materials suitable to handle carbamate
shell side;
- To install an economical MP CO2 compressor to feed CO2 at medium pressure to the MP stripper.
The combination of the above four steps will bring steam consumption of any CO2 stripping plant down to
levels close to those of the Launch MeltTM Ultra Low Energy Design and, at the same time, will significantly
increase the capacity of the plant.
4. CONCLUSIONS
Simplicity is the hallmark of Stamicarbon designs. Once again Stamicarbon engineers could leverage an
intimate understanding of the urea process and their capabilities of abstraction to define a new urea process
that is going to reshape the economics of urea production.
The Launch MeltTM Ultra Low Energy Design has been already licensed and the first unit is expected to come
on stream within a couple of years.
This does not mean that the existing CO2 stripping plants became obsolete. Actually, they can economically
be revamped to reach similar performances in terms of energy consumption and yet achieve significantly
higher throughput.

268 Nitrogen + Syngas 2018 International Conference & Exhibition (Gothenburg 26 February-1 March 2018)