02-09-2014

Topsoe to design large-scale fertilizer plant with project partners in Turkmenistan

In collaboration with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., Haldor Topsoe A/S has been selected for the design of a new ammonia plant for a major fertilizer project in Turkmenistan. The project has been awarded by State Concern Turkmenhimiya, a state-owned chemical company in Turkmenistan and also includes project partners Mitsubishi Corporation and the Turkish construction company GAP Ä°nÅŸaat.

The fertilizer plant is scheduled to go on stream in June 2018 and will become the largest in Turkmenistan located in the city of Garabogaz on the coast of the Caspian Sea in the northwestern part of the country. Using Turkmenistan's abundant natural gas reserve as feedstock, the plant will have a daily capacity of 2,000 metric tons of ammonia and 3,500 metric tons of urea.

Haldor Topsoe will be responsible for the engineering design of the ammonia plant with special emphasis on minimizing the environmental impact from production by featuring a SCR (Selective Catalytic Reduction) DeNOx unit which can treat the flue gas from the facility reducing NOx pollution. Besides engineering design and licensing, the delivery from Haldor Topsoe also includes proprietary hardware related to the ammonia process technology as well as catalysts.

The award of the contract is a continuation of a successful collaboration between Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Haldor Topsoe that currently have three other ammonia related projects under construction.

Turkmenistan is one of the six independent Turkic states and is bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the northeast and east, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the south and southwest, and the Caspian Sea to the west. The country, which is ranked fourth in the world in terms of its natural gas reserves, has expanded its economy steadily in recent years, and has aggressively promoted the development of new ways to monetize natural gas and the diversify its exports. The fertilizer plant construction project is one of the country's key initiatives in this regard, and the intention is to export all of the fertilizer produced at the site to other countries.

The fertilizer plant represents one of two major contracts in Turkmenistan that has been awarded to Haldor Topsoe this month. On 26 August Haldor Topsoe announced that it has won a major contract for the construction of a major plant focused on the conversion of natural gas into synthetic gasoline. This plant will be based on Haldor Topsoe’s TIGAS™ (Topsoe Improved Gasoline Synthesis) technology and will become the first full scale large commercial facility in the world using this technology.