Ammonia Production

Ammonia Production

The Haber process, also called the Haber–Bosch process, is an artificial nitrogen fixation process and is the main industrial procedure for the production of ammonia today. The process converts atmospheric nitrogen (N2) to ammonia (NH3) by a reaction with hydrogen (H2) using a metal catalyst under high temperatures and pressures: N2 + 3 H2 → 2 NH3.

 

High Conversion Yield

This conversion is typically conducted at 150 – 250 bara and between 400 – 500 °C as the gases are passed over four beds of catalysts, with cooling between each pass in order to maintain a reasonable equilibrium constant. On each pass the conversion rate is ~15%, but any unreacted gases are recycled, and eventually an overall conversion yield of 97% can be reached.

 

Demanding Production

The Process Gas Compressor solution of Burckhardt Compression is designed to fully comply with the most demanding ammonia production process requirements. Burckhardt Compression offers its compressor solutions as complete turn-key installations, engineered packages or bare frame compressors. Burckhardt Compression’s outstanding experience on compressor components results in the longest mean time between compressor overhauls (MTBO) due to specific component selection (e.g. piston rings, packings and valves) for ammonia process gas compressors. This enables increased uptime of ammonia process gas compressors with maximized ammonia yield and minimized OPEX costs for our compressor solution.