Green Ammonia & CO₂ Capture: thyssenkrupp Uhde Makes MOPCO More Sustainable

thyssenkrupp Uhde has been contracted by MOPCO - Misr Fertilizers Production Company (Egypt) - to supply innovative technology for three existing ammonia and urea plants in Damietta, Egypt. The aim is to improve the sustainability of their production. With a carbon capture and utilization (CCU) solution developed by thyssenkrupp Uhde, up to 145,000 t/year of CO2 will be removed from the off-gas of the existing ammonia production and used in the urea production. At the same time, three state-of-the-art uhde® ammonia converter inserts will be installed in the existing converters. This will increase ammonia production capacity while reducing natural gas consumption in the synthesis loop by around 10%. To reduce CO2 emissions even further, green hydrogen from new water electrolysis plants powered by renewable energy will also be used. MOPCO plans to produce up to 150,000 tons of green ammonia annually in the future.

Ahmed Mahmoud El-Sayed, Chairman and Managing Director of MOPCO: “This collaboration with thyssenkrupp Uhde is a significant step towards achieving our strategic sustainability goals. thyssenkrupp Uhde's world-leading technologies will not only increase our production capacity, but also demonstrate our commitment to providing more climate-friendly urea and ammonia. This will make MOPCO a leading producer of these products in the MENA region.”

Nadja Håkansson, CEO of thyssenkrupp Uhde: “We are proud to be able to help our long-standing partner MOPCO move their business towards greener production through our innovative solutions for carbon capture and low-emission ammonia production.”

The ammonia and urea plants (three each) were originally built by thyssenkrupp Uhde between 2006 and 2015, with each plant having a capacity of 1,200 metric tons of ammonia per day (mtpd) and 2,000 mtpd of urea respectively. To increase the ammonia production capacity, three new uhde® ammonia converter inserts are now being installed. These inserts are based on the latest design principles such as removable beds with axial-radial flow control and will increase production by 150 metric tons per day per unit and enable the production of green ammonia. This will be achieved by significantly increasing the effective catalyst volume and using Johnson Matthey's high performance KATALCOTM 74-1 catalyst as part of the solution.

As the inserts are designed for installation in existing pressure housings, hardware adaptations are kept to a minimum and the conversion can be carried out with minimal downtime. thyssenkrupp Uhde will provide comprehensive services throughout the installation and start-up phase, including the integration of the planned green hydrogen supply.