The Production of Synthetic Ammonia

The vast majority of the world's ammonia is synthetic except for a small amount of by-product recovered from coke oven gas.Synthetic ammonia is mainly used as fertilizer, refrigerant and chemical raw materials. The main raw materials for the production of synthetic ammonia are natural gas, naphtha, heavy oil and coal (or coke), etc.

①Ammonia production from natural gas. Natural gas is first desulfurized, then through secondary conversion, and then through carbon monoxide conversion, carbon dioxide removal and other processes, respectively, to obtain nitrogen and hydrogen mixture, which still contains carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide about 0.1%~0.3%(volume), after methanation removal, to produce a pure gas with a molar ratio of hydrogen and nitrogen of 3, which is compressed by compressor and enters the ammonia synthesis circuit.

② Ammonia from heavy oil. The heavy oil includes resids obtained from various deep processing, which can be used to produce ammonia raw gas by partial oxidation. The production process is simpler than that of natural gas vapor conversion, but it requires an air separation device.The oxygen produced by the air separator is used in the oil

In addition to nitrogen as raw material for ammonia synthesis, liquid nitrogen is also used as a detergent for the removal of carbon monoxide, methane and argon.

③ To make ammonia from coal (coke). With the development of petrochemical industry and natural gas chemical industry, coal is used as raw material to produce ammonia.