KBR has been involved in the licensing, design, engineering and/or construction of more than 200 ammonia plants worldwide

Ammonia & Fertilizer

As a leading supplier of ammonia process technologies, KBR has been involved in the licensing, design, engineering and/or construction of more than 200 ammonia plants worldwide, representing approximately half of current global ammonia production.
Licensed KBR ammonia process technology solutions for the ammonia and fertilizers market include:

• Conventional Magnetite Ammonia Synthesis Process. Combines our top-fired primary reforming technology with ammonia synthesis in a horizontal ammonia synthesis converter.
• Purifier™ Ammonia Process. Our cryogenic syngas purifier along with a horizontal ammonia synthesis converter.
• PURIFIERplus™ Ammonia Process. Combines proven and reliable technologies from our proprietary KRES™, Purifier™ and horizontal ammonia synthesis converter.
• KBR Advanced Ammonia Process (KAAP™). Combines Top-Fired Steam Methane Reformer (SMR) with a KAAP Synthesis Converter.
• KAAPplus™. Combines the advantages of three KBR ammonia technologies: KRES™, Purifier™, and KAAP™.

Ammonia plants using KBR Technology provide competitive cost, have low energy consumption, safe operations and superior on-stream time. Contributing to the best-in-class operating efficiency and on-stream performance of every KBR-designed ammonia plant are robust, cost-effective, proprietary ammonia process equipment items that were developed and continuously improved by KBR over the years.
Commercially-proven KBR proprietary ammonia process equipment solutions include:

• Top-Fired Steam Methane Reformer (SMR)
• KBR Reforming Exchanger System (KRES™)
• Purifier™ (cryogenic syngas purification)
• KBR Waste Heat Boiler
• Horizontal Ammonia Synthesis Converter
• KAAP™ Ammonia Synthesis Converter
• Unitized Chiller

The front end of every ammonia plant is a synthesis gas plant converting either natural gas feedstock from a pipeline, typically from offshore gas production wells, naphtha feedstock, or synthetic natural gas product gas from an upstream coal gasification unit into a useful gas mixture commonly referred to as synthesis gas (or syngas) composed of hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, water and various trace inert gases including methane and argon. Thus, KBR has licensed process designs and/or basic engineering packages for over 200 synthesis gas production plants (syngas plants) as part of the 200-plus ammonia plants built globally in the past 50 years using KBR ammonia process technology.
In an ammonia plant, the synthesis gas is purified and the hydrogen to nitrogen ratio is adjusted to the stoichiometric 3:1 molar ratio needed for ammonia synthesis. Hydrogen, of course, can be recovered separately from the syngas mixture and purified to yield a high-purity hydrogen product stream for use in refinery processing units or petrochemical plants. In fact, KBR has worked on the design and/or construction of over 34 low-energy, low-cost refinery hydrogen plants using proprietary KBR natural gas reforming technologies. The innovative, cost-effective synthesis gas (syngas) production technologies and hydrogen production technologies KBR offers include: the KBR top-fired steam methane reformer (SMR) and the KBR Reforming Exchanger System (KRES™).
As a leading ammonia licensor, KBR has completed more than 40 projects for major fertilizer complexes, including production of ammonia, urea, nitric acid, ammonium nitrate, UAN solution, NPK, triple superphosphate, single super phosphate, di-ammonium phosphate, sulfuric acid, and ammonium sulfate. KBR has executed 62 urea projects and offers complete urea plant designs with plant capacities ranging from 600 to 3500+ mtpd. Most of the iear plant projects use Stamicarbon's urea technology. Stamicarbon is the leading licensor of urea process technology and KBR is authorized to license Stamicarbon's urea process technology to clients.
To enable our clients to extract the maximum possible performance from their KBR-designed ammonia plants, we offer advanced process automation technologies that include Advanced Process Control Systems and Operator Training Simulators.
For more information, please visit our KBR Ammonia and Syngas publications, view our Ammonia Experience or contact a KBR Technology representative by completing the contact form.