Process description This document shall provide a description of the single pressure process selected for the production

of 55,000 tonnes per year of nitric acid production. It should be read in conjunction with the P&ID no (give P&ID reference number here) 1.0 Overview The process selected for the manufacture of 60% (wt.) Nitric acid is a single-pressure process. This process was developed to take full advantage of the high process pressure. Higher pressures allow the size of equipment to be reduced throughout the process. Elevated pressure is also shown to be of great advantage for absorption, while exhibiting only slightly decreased yields at the reaction stage. An initial two-stage compression step is used to raise the pressure throughout the entire process. The operating pressure is approximately 10 bar gauge (1000 kPa). The major process units include an air compressor to provide feed air to the process, and an ammonia vaporizer and super heater for pre-treatment of the feed ammonia. A reactor vessel with a fixed platinum/rhodium catalyst bed quickly oxidizes the ammonia at reaction temperatures approaching 950C. The reaction yield is 95%. A heat exchanger train immediately following the reactor is used to recover reaction heat. Reaction heat is recovered for both gas expansion (to provide shaft power for the air compressors) and for production of medium-pressure steam (at 380C and 4000 kPa). The high-level energy available in the process is shared approximately equally between gas expansion and steam production. About 40% of all steam production is delegated to in- house process requirements, leaving about 3200 kg/hour available for export. Cooled reaction gases are absorbed in water/weak acid using a sieve tray-type tower. The bottoms from this tower is a so-called red product acid, the colour resulting from dissolved nitrogen oxide impurities. The red product acid is then bleached in a smaller sieve tray stripping column. Air is bubbled through the red acid to strip out the dissolved nitrogen oxides. The bottom product from this column is the product nitric acid at 60% (wt.) concentration. 1.1 Ammonia Vaporization The process begins with the vaporization of ammonia at 1240 kPa and 35C using process heat. Steam is then used to superheat the ammonia up to 180C. Filtered air is compressed in a two-stage axial compressor to a discharge pressure of 1090 kPa and temperature of 232C. Part of the air is diverted for acid bleaching, and the balance for ammonia oxidation is circulated through a jacket on the inner wall of the reactor. This 1.2 Ammonia Oxidation Preheated air and the ammonia vapour (10.3% ammonia by volume) are then mixed and passed through the platinum/rhodium catalyst gauze. The ammonia is rapidly oxidized and the heat of reaction raises the reaction-gas temperature to 927- 937C. During the ammonia oxidation reaction, platinum and rhodium are lost in the form of volatile oxide vapours. Plant experience indicates that the loss from a single-pressure converter operating at 937C is approximately 0.384 g/tonne. Due to this phenomenon, two platinum filter systems have been included in the design. The first is a gold / palladium alloy gauze placed immediately after the catalyst gauze in the reactor. The gold/palladium alloy forms a complex with the volatilized platinum and rhodium so that up to 70% of the volatilized catalyst may be recovered. The second platinum filter is a ceramic, alumino-silicate filter located between the waste heat boiler and the tail-gas preheater. This second filter is able to trap 50% of the remaining precious metal catalyst for recovery at a later stage. However, the catalyst must still be reworked every five to seven weeks. The reaction gas flows through a series of heat exchangers for recovery of energy as either highpressure superheated steam, or as shaft horsepower from the expansion of hot tail gas. This heat exchanger train cools the reaction gases to 185C. At this stage, 70% of the nitrogen monoxide initially formed will have already oxidized to nitrogen dioxide. Further cooling to 60C (in the primary cooler/ condenser) is followed by separation of approximately one third acid product as 42% strength

nitric acid. The gas reaches a state of oxidation to nitrogen dioxide of 43%, with the dimerization being approximately 20%. The gas is then combined with bleached air containing additional nitrogen peroxide. This mixture further oxidizes using the additional oxygen supplied from the secondary air stream. It passes through an empty oxidation vessel and then through the secondary cooler. In cooling from 140C to 65C in the secondary cooler, the gas provides heat to a recirculating warmwater loop. This loop in turn provides the energy to evaporate the liquid ammonia feed. 1.3 Absorption The reaction gas mixture entering the absorber is 95% oxidized to nitrogen peroxide and 27% dimerized. In the absorber, deionized water is added to the top tray and weak acid from the lowpressure condenser is added to a tray corresponding to its acid strength. Down-flowing acid and up flowing gases alternately mix as the chemical steps of action formation and nitric oxide oxidation take place with the accompanying release of heat. There are three operational zones in the absorber: the lower zone cooled with deionized cooling water; the middle zone cooled with chilled water; and the upper zone which is essentially adiabatic. Highly efficient heat removal in the middle and lower zones is particularly important due to its effect on the oxidation and dimerization reactions. The three-stage cooling system in the absorber provides good operational control over the unit. For this design, chilled cooling water and make-up water (both at 7C) are used. The chilled water for the absorber is supplied by an absorption refrigeration unit to cool the tail-gas exit temperature is approximately 10C. Acid from the bottom of the absorber is bleached at 1010 kPa using partially cooled, compressed air. The bleach air, containing nitrogen peroxide stripped from the acid, is then added to the main reaction gas stream at the oxidation vessel. The cold tail gas leaving the absorber is warmed by heat exchange with the hot secondary air stream on route to the bleaching column. The tail gas is then heated to the expander inlet temperature of 620C by passage through two further exchangers in the recovery train. The expander recovers 80% of the required compressor power. Expanded tail gas at 290C then flows through an economizer providing heat to the high-pressure boiler-feed water and to the low-pressure deionized water. Subsequently, tail gas is exhausted to the atmosphere at 210C and containing less than 1000 ppm of nitrogen oxides. The cooling water circuit provides river water (at 20C) to the steam condenser and compressor intercooler. The use of stainless steels from the cooler/condenser onward has necessitated the use of deionized water for all other cooling applications. Any chloride contamination causes costly corrosion problems. Mild steel is suitable for the construction of all the process units up to the cooler/condenser, however, at this stage it is possible for nitric acid to be present in either liquid or vapour form in the reaction mixture. Stainless steel grade 304L is used for the cooler/ condenser and all subsequent equipment. Grade 304L is resistant to corrosion by nitric acid, due to extensive nitriding during preparation and its extremely low carbon content. This stainless steel grade is also suitable for machining.

****PLEASE NOTE THAT ABOVE IS NOT A COMPLETE PROCESS DESCRIPTION****