Products and solutions Oct 25, 2006 12:00 PM
1.4 million tonnes a year less CO2 in Egypt and new contract in South Africa for EnviNOx® tail gas treatment unit
At the end of September the tail gas treatment unit based on the innovative Uhde EnviNOx® technology was successfully commissioned in one of the world's biggest nitric acid plants belonging to Abu Qir Fertilizer Company in Egypt. Uhde's EnviNOx® process uses a special catalyst to convert the pollutant nitrogen oxides, i.e. nitrous oxide (N2O) and NOx, in the tail gas streams of nitric acid plants into the naturally-occurring substances nitrogen, oxygen and water vapour.
Following the successful performance test run, annual emissions will be reduced by approximately 4,700 tonnes of nitrous oxide and a total of 5,600 tonnes of nitrogen oxides. The nitrous oxide abatement will correspond to an annual CO2 reduction of over 1.4 million tonnes, as the global warming potential of nitrous oxide is estimated to be some 310 times that of carbon dioxide (CO2). More than 99% of the nitrous oxide will be abated and an NOx concentration of less than the detection limit of 1ppm vol. in the tail gas achieved, thus ensuring maximum abatement rates for the new unit.
Mid-October a contract for an EnviNOx® tail gas treatment unit was also awarded to Uhde by Omnia Fertilizer Limited of South Africa. The unit is to be installed in a nitric acid plant in Sasolburg, some 100 kilometres south-west of Johannesburg. The contract comprises the licence, basic engineering, supply of key equipment and commissioning of the unit in mid-2007. The unit will reduce future annual emissions by a total of 2,400 tonnes of nitrogen oxides. The nitrous oxide abatement levels alone, amounting to some 1,900 tonnes, will correspond to a reduction of approximately 580,000 tonnes a year of CO2.
The two EnviNOx® plants in Egypt and South Africa will together achieve an annual nitrous oxide abatement level equivalent to some two million tonnes of CO2, corresponding to annual carbon dioxide emissions of around 500,000 cars with an average mileage of 20,000 kilometres a year.