Designing of Urea Plant

Nitish Bir
Chetan Mahajan
Roshan Kudari

Department of Chemical Engineering

Dr. B R Ambedkar National Institute of Technology
Jalandhar-144001, Punjab
Designing of
Urea Plant
 Topics to be covered

Site Selection
Selection of Process and flow sheet
Mass and energy balance of whole plant
Designing of various equipments including Heat
Exchanger, Pump, Stripper and Reactor.
Environmental Impact Assessment
Economics of Plant
Raw Materials Properties Applications
Ammonia Chemical As a fertiliser in
Carbon Dioxide formula CO(NH2)2 agriculture.
White odourless solid As cattle feed.
Molecular Mass 60.07 As an industrial raw
g/mole material
Boiling point: 160C Urea can be used to
Melting point: 132C make urea nitrate
 Site Selection
Site selection includes making the ultimate choice of site where
business or manufacturing plant is going to be established. It is
an important task to be done in a business case.
By selecting the suitable site for the manufacturing plant it
would be able to reduce the transportation cost of raw materials
and energy, make easy access to infrastructure facilities,
availability of labour force and many other benefits.
Selection should be done by considering cost and benefits of
available alternative sites. It is a strategic decision to be made,
where improper decision may cause considerable loss. So it may
required to select ideal or optimum location for the business.
Following facts should be considered regarding site selection
Availability of raw material
Infrastructure facilities
Legal obligations enforced by relevant authority or the
government
Environment and climate conditions
Labour force availability
Social considerations
Waste management
 Various Processes for Urea Production
Several processes are used to urea manufacturing. These
processes have several comparable advantages and disadvantages
based on capital cost, maintenance cost, energy cost, efficiency
and product quality. Some of the widely used urea production
processes are
Conventional processes
Stamicarbon CO2 stripping process
Snamprogetti Ammonia and self stripping processes
Isobaric double recycle process
ACES process
Process Advantages Disadvantages

Conventional Process Simple Process Large quantity of

ammonia salt is
formed as co product
High production cost
High Energy cost
High pollution
Stamicarbon CO2 High urea yield High production cost
stripping process High purity High Energy cost

Snamprogetti Ammonia and Low production cost High capital cost

self stripping processes High energy recovery
High efficiency
Low environmental
pollution
Isobaric double recycle --- Complex Process
process

ACES process Low consumption of High production cost

steam High Energy cost
Snam Progetti Process
 M.P
Separator Dec

Stripper
Reactor

om
pos
Condenser er

NH3 H.
Ex
CO2

L.P.

Prilling tower
Deco
Absorber

mpo Vacuu
ser m
Conce
ntrato
r
Condense
r Air

Urea
 Off Gas
Stripper

Vacuum
Medium Low Evaporato
Pressure Pressure r
Separati Separation
on
Carbamat Air
e
Condense
r Prilling
Tower

Medium Low
Urea
Reactor Pressure Pressure
Decomp Decomp
oser oser
NH3
CO2
Main component of the process
1. Reactor
The reactor is operated at 190 C and 175 bar. NH3:CO2 molar
feed ratio to the reactor is 3:1. One pass conversion rate of CO2
to urea is about 68%. NH3 is directly fed to the reactor. Following
reaction occurs inside the reactor.
2NH3 + CO2 NH2COONH4 + heat H = -84 kJ/mol
NH2COONH4 + heat NH2CONH2 + H2O H = +23 kJ/mol
2. Stripper
Excess ammonia is partly separated and ammonium carbamate is
decomposed and the resulting CO2 and NH3 as well as the excess
NH3 are evaporated by CO2 stripping and steam heating.
Following reaction occurs inside the stripper.
NH2COONH4 + heat 2NH3 + CO2 H = +84 kJ/mol
NH3(l) NH3(g)
Carbamate Condenser
Carbamate condenser is fed with overhead gaseous mixture from the
top of the stripper, In this unit the gaseous mixture is condensed and
absorbed by the carbamate solution coming from the medium pressure
recovery stage. Heat liberated in the high pressure carbamate condenser
is used to generate low pressure steam. The gas and liquid from the
carbamate condensers are recycled to the reactor by gravity flow.
2NH3 + CO2 NH2COONH4 + heat H = -84 kJ/mol
NH3(g) NH3(l)

Medium Pressure Absorber

In medium pressure absorber ammonia and carbon dioxide separated
from the urea solution in medium pressure decomposer are recovered.
Condensation heat in the medium pressure absorber is transferred
directly to the aqueous urea solution feed in the final concentration
section.
2NH3 + CO2 NH2COONH4 + heat H = -84 kJ/mol
Low Pressure Decomposer
After the medium pressure decomposer, further purification of
urea solution occurs inside the low pressure decomposer which is
operating at 2.5 bar. External heat supply is available. All
ammonia and ammonium carbamate are removed by the Low
Pressure Decomposer.
NH2COONH4 + heat 2NH3 + CO2 H = +84 kJ/mol
NH3(l) NH3(g)

Concentrator
This is a calendria type evaporator. This is operated at 0.55 bar
vacuum pressure and at 110 C Here the purified urea solution is
further concentrated and required heat is taken from2 bar
pressure steam produced in low pressure absorber.
MASS BALANCE OF PLANT
Basis: 100 Kmol/hr of feed

In this process the ratio of NH3 to CO2 is 3:6.1.

This can be approximately taken as 1:2.
NH3 in the feed= 33.3 kmol
CO2 in the feed= 66.6 kmol
Material balance on Reactor
1T
2NH3 + CO2 NH4COONH4
NH3 reacted = 33.3 kmol
CO2 reacted = 16.65 kmol
REACTOR

1B
NH4COONH4 produced = 16.65 kmol
NH4COONH4 NH2CONH2 + H2O
This reaction takes place upto 64%
NH4COONH4 reacted = 0.64 16.65 = 10.656 kmol
NH2CONH2 produced = 10.656 kmol
H2O produced = 10.656 kmol

1B 1T
Kmol/hr Kg/hr Kmol/hr Kg/hr
Ammonia 33.3 566.1 --- ---
Carbon 66.6 2930.4 49.9 2197.84
Dioxide
Ammonium --- --- 5.994 467.53
Carbamate
Urea --- --- 10.656 639.36
Water --- --- 10.656 191.808
3496.5 3496.54
Balance Across The Stripper
2T
1T

Stripper
NH4COONH2 2 NH3 + CO2

Decomposition is about 64%

Decomposed NH4COONH2 = 2B
0.64 5.994 = 3.83616 kmol

NH3 produced = 7.67232 kmol

CO2 produced = 3.83616 kmol
 2B 2T 1T
Kmol/ Kg/hr Kmol/hr Kg/hr Kmol/hr Kg/hr
hr
Ammonia --- --- 7.672 130.429 --- ---
Carbon --- --- 53.786 2366.59 49.95 2197.84
Dioxide 1
Ammonium 2.157 168.311 --- --- 5.994 467.53
Carbamate
Urea 10.65 639.36 --- --- 10.656 639.36
6
Water 9.377 168.786 1.278 23.017 10.656 191.808
976.457 2520.0 3496.54
37
1T = 2B + 2T = (976.457 + 2520.037) =
3496.49 kg
BALANCE ACROSS MEDIUM PRESSURE DECOMPOSER

3T

Medium Pressure
2B
Decomposer

3B

NH4COONH2 2 NH3 + CO2

This decomposition is about 85.5%
Decomposed NH4COONH2 = 0.855 2.15784 = 1.8449 kmol
NH3 produced = 3.6899 kmol.
CO2 produced= 1.8449 kmol.
12% water evaporates. (Assume)
 3B 3T 2B
Kmol/ Kg/hr Kmol/hr Kg/hr Kmol/hr Kg/hr
hr
Ammonia --- --- 3.6899 62.7283 --- ---
Carbon --- --- 1.8449 81.175 --- ---
Dioxide
Ammonium 0.312 24.409 --- --- 2.157 168.311
Carbamate 9
Urea 10.65 639.36 --- --- 10.656 639.36
6
Water 8.252 148.536 1.125 20.255 9.37728 168.791
04
812.305 164.15 976.457
3T + 3B = 812.305 + 164.159
9 = 2B =
976.4625 kg
BALANCE ACROSS LOW PRESSURE DECOMPOSER

6T
3B

Low Pressure
Decomposer

6B

NH4COONH2 2 NH3 + CO2

Decomposition takes up to 50%

Decomposed NH4COONH2 = 0.50 0.31294 =
0.15647 kmol

NH3 produced = 0.31294 kmol

CO2 produced= 0.15647 kmol
 6B 6T 3B
Kmol/ Kg/hr Kmol/hr Kg/hr Kmol/hr Kg/hr
hr
Ammonia --- --- 0.31294 5.31998 --- ---
Carbon --- --- 0.15647 6.88468 --- ---
Dioxide
Ammonium 0.156 12.2046 --- --- 0.31294 24.409
Carbamate 7 6
Urea 10.65 639.36 --- --- 10.656 639.36
6
Water 7.261 130.711 0.99024 17.824 8.252 148.791
7 04
782.276 30.028 812.305
6B + 6T = 782.276 + 30.0289
9 = 3B =
812.305kg
RECYCLE STREAM

5B is the recycle stream.

5B = 2T + 3T

5B
Kmol/hr Kg/hr
Ammonia 11.3622 193.157
Carbon Dioxide 55.361 2447.764
Ammonium Carbamate
Urea
Water 2.404 43.27
2684.19
BALANCE ACROSS VACUUM CONCENTRATOR

Vacuum
6B 7B
Concentrator

% composition of 6B:
Urea = 78.8%
Water = 19.6%
Ammonium carbamate = 1.6%
% of urea in 7B = 98%
Applying component balance:
0.788 782.276 = 0.98 7B
7B = 629.013 kg /hr.
We get 629.013 kg of 98% urea.