A milestone: K.S. Raju, Chairman and Managing Director of the Nagarjuna Fertilizers and Chemicals Limited, inaugurating the carbon dioxide recovery plant at the NFCL in Kakinada on Tuesday.
Kakinada: Nagarjuna Fertilizers and Chemicals Limited Chairman and Managing Director K.S. Raju commissioned a Carbon Dioxide Recovery (CDR) plant of 450 metric tons per day capacity for commercial use in the urea production facilities on Tuesday.
The order for CDR plant was placed with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), Japan, and Tecnimont ICB (TICB), Mumbai on lump-sum turnkey basis.
The scope of MHI was for basic knowhow and licensing while TICB was vested with engineering, procurement and construction.
NFCL has two units for manufacturing urea with a capacity of six lakh metric tons per annum each. Unit-I is operated on natural gas and the other one is being operated mainly on naphtha because of the short supply of natural gas from Gas Authority of India Limited.
In anticipation of additional natural gas from Reliance Industries Limited from its KG basin reserves, the order of CDR plant was placed in July 2007 with a completion schedule of 22 months (by May, 2009).
But due to the intensive efforts of NFCL, TICB and MHI, the project could be completed two months in advance.
With the commissioning of this CDR plant, NFCL will be able to recover 450 MTPD of CO2 from the flue-gas stack thus helping the company to be eligible for carbon credits through Clean Development Mechanism.
While changing over the operations from naphtha to natural gas, there will be a shortage of carbon dioxide (CO2).
For making urea, ammonia and CO2 are required in a specific proportion which will be met by the new CDR plant. The energy norm will improve to 5.500 Gcal / MT of urea from the present level of 5.610 Gcal / MT of Urea.
Besides, production will increase from both units by about 2 lakh MT per annum.
NFCL COO and Director (Operations) R.S. Nanda, Vice-President R.D. Mall, Senior General Manager R Singh, TICB Managing Director Pietro Paolo Alessandrello and MHI Deputy General Manager Minami were among those present.