To produce ammonia from hydrocarbon feedstocks using a high-pressure heat exchange-based steam reforming process integrated with a low-pressure advanced ammonia synthesis process.
The key steps in the KAAPplus process are reforming using the KBR reforming exchanger system (KRES), cryogenic purification of the synthesis gas and low-pressure ammonia synthesis using KAAP catalyst.
Following sulfur removal (1), the feed is mixed with steam, heated and split into two streams. One stream flows to the autothermal reformer (ATR) (2) and the other to the tube side of the reforming exchanger (3), which operates in parallel with the ATR. Both convert the hydrocarbon feed into raw synthesis gas using conventional nickel catalyst.
In the ATR, feed is partially combusted with excess air to supply the heat needed to reform the remaining hydrocarbon feed. The hot autothermal reformer effluent is fed to the shell side of the KRES reforming exchanger, where it combines with the reformed gas exiting the catalyst-packed tubes. The combined stream flows across the shell side of the reforming exchanger where it efficiently supplies heat to the reforming reaction inside the tubes.
Shell-side effluent from the reforming exchanger is cooled in a waste-heat boiler, where high-pressure steam is generated, and then it flows to the CO shift converters containing two catalyst types: one (4) is a high-temperature catalyst and the other (5) is a low-temperature catalyst.
Shift reactor effluent is cooled, condensed water is separated (6) and then routed to the gas purification section. CO2 is removed from synthesis gas using a wet CO2 scrubbing system such as hot potassium carbonate or MDEA (methyl diethanolamine) (7).
After CO2 removal, final purification includes methanation (8), gas drying (9), and cryogenic purification (10). The resulting pure synthesis gas is compressed in a single-case compressor and mixed with a recycle stream (11). The gas mixture is fed to the KAAP ammonia converter (12), which uses a ruthenium-based, high-activity ammonia synthesis catalyst.
It provides high conversion at the relatively low pressure of 90 bar with a relatively small catalyst volume. Effluent vapors are cooled by ammonia refrigeration (13) and unreacted gases are recycled. Anhydrous liquid ammonia is condensed and separated (14) from the effluent.
Energy consumption of KBR’s KAAPplus process is less than 25 MMBtu (LHV)/short-ton. Elimination of the primary reformer combined with low-pressure synthesis provides a capital cost savings of about 10% over conventional processes.
Licensor: Kellogg Brown & Root, LLC
