12-07-2013

Haldor Topsøe licensing technology to Russia’s largest ammonia plant

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) and Sojitz Corporation of Japan have received an order from PhosAgro-Cherepovets for a project to construct the largest ammonia plant in the Russian Federation. The estimated investment cost of the project is USD $785 million and the plant is scheduled to begin operations in 2017.

Topsøe process technology
The ammonia plant will be built in the city of Cherepovets approximately 400 kilometers north of Moscow. It will have a production capacity of 2,200 MTPD of ammonia using natural gas as feedstock, and will adopt the highly energy efficient ammonia process technology of Haldor Topsøe A/S. Besides the engineering design and license, the delivery from Topsøe also includes proprietary hardware and catalysts.

The award of this contract marks the continued success of MHI’s and Topsøe’s collaboration in the Russian market, where another project is currently under construction.

"We are pleased to contribute to the construction of a modern ammonia plant in Cherepovets. This project is very important to us and continues our long history of cooperation with the PhosAgro Group in different technology areas", says Jens Perregaard, General Director of Haldor Topsøe Moscow Representative Office.

Europe’s largest fertilizer producer
PhosAgro is Europe’s largest producer of phosphate-based fertilizers and also produces high-grade phosphate rock, ammonia and nitrogen fertilizers. The company is currently seeking to upgrade its existing facilities and increase ammonia production.

Rising Russian interest in fertilizers
Demand for ammonia-based fertilizers is expected to rise steadily worldwide amid rising food production in response to global population growth. In Russia, which is one of the world’s leading producers of natural gas, interest in fertilizer production is increasing as the country seeks higher value from its natural gas resources. Russia is presently seeing robust growth in demand for replacement of fertilizer plants that were constructed twenty to thirty years ago.

For more information, please visit www.topsoe.com