11.2. Commercial Examples

Coffeyville Resources Nitrogen Fertilizers Plant
This plant, located in Coffeyville, Kansas, produces ammonia and urea ammonium nitrate (UAN) fertilizers. The plant is the only one in North America using a petroleum-coke based fertilizer production process (the petroleum coke, generated at an oil refinery next door to the plant, is gasified to produce hydrogen, from which ammonia and UAN fertilizers are subsequently synthesized). The plant produces about 5 percent of total UAN demand in the United States and is located close to extensive fertilizer markets of the Midwest, lowering distribution costs of its products. The plant includes a 1,300 ton-per-day ammonia unit, a 3,000 ton-per-day UAN unit and a gasifier complex having a capacity of 89 million standard cubic feet per day of hydrogen¹.

The Coffeyville plant utilizes dual Air Products (formerly GE/ChevronTexaco) quench-type petcoke gasifiers (design capacity of 1,300 STPD) operating at a pressure of 620 psig (43 bar)². An oxygen separation plant provides oxygen for the gasifiers, as well as nitrogen needed downstream for reaction with hydrogen to produce ammonia. Syngas is cleaned in a dual-stage acid gas removal process, separating  H₂S and CO₂ in separate streams. Cleaned syngas is supplied to a Pressure Swing Absorption unit, separating pure hydrogen which is reacted with nitrogen in an ammonia plant. The facility has capability to process substantial amounts of the ammonia further into urea/ammonium nitrate fertilizer. The general process arrangement of the plant is depicted below.

Although the plant does not gasify coal, the process would be essentially the same for a coal feedstock, illustrating the potential for coal use in the United States to produce ammonia and ammonia-derived fertilizers.

CO₂ Capture at Coffeyville
In 2011, subsidiaries of Chaparral Energy and CVR Energy (the owner and operator of the Coffeyville plant) reached a CO₂ purchase and sale agreement to capture CO₂ from the plant, which Chaparral needed for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) operations in northeastern Oklahoma. Coffeyville Resources Nitrogen Fertilizers' plant produces approximately 850,000 tons of CO₂ per year, some of which is diverted for urea synthesis, but most of which has previously been vented to the atmosphere. According to the new agreement, most (650,000 tpy) of the fertilizer plant's CO₂ would be captured by Chaparral, who would construct a CO₂ compression facility at the plant site and install approximately 70 miles of pipeline to deliver it to its North Burbank Unit in Osage County³. Chaparral Energy began CO₂ injection operations in June 2013⁴.

SINOPEC 
The SINOPEC Hubei Chemical Fertilizer Company is located on the Changjang River in the Hubei Province of China, adjacent to the city of Yichang. The plant has operated for 30 years producing more than 12 million tons of urea for use in agricultural production. Gasification was introduced to the plant after three years of construction with completion in December of 2006.

The SINOPEC Baling Company is located in Yueyang City of Hunan Province, China. This facility began using Shell's gasification technology in 2007 to produce chemical fertilizers.

The SINOPEC Anqing Company is located in Anqing City in Anhui Province, China. As a means to decrease urea production costs, Shell gasification technology was used to switch the raw material from oil to coal. This project was initiated in 2001, with construction beginning in 2004. Operation was commenced in late 2006.

Ube Ammonia Co., Ltd.
Ube Ammonia Co., Ltd. in Japan owns and operates a petroleum coke and coal to ammonia plant in the southwestern prefecture of Yamaguchi, which uses Air Products slurry gasification (formerly GE/ChevronTexaco) technology. Production on the plant began in August 1984. When constructed, plant capacity was 350 tons of liquefied ammonia per day.

Fertilizer

• Commercial Technologies
• Commercial Examples
• DOE R&D Advantages