Process optimization to reduce urea plant startup failure rate and ammonia pollution

摘要

This document explicates the improvisations made to overcome the startup failures due to hardware limitations of Urea Plant at Engro Fertilizers Limited, Pakistan. Since plant commissioning, the success rate of the Urea plant startup has been low because of instability of the high pressure scrubber U-seal which also results in ammonia pollution & excessive venting. Startups experienced during the operating period of more than 20 years have been listed. Each scenario was studied with thorough Root Cause Analysis, resulting in identification and implementation of process variations. These changes resulted in improved startup success rate and reduced startup time. This eventually helped in minimizing the excessive venting and therefore eliminated environmental concerns which ultimately facilitated Engro to keep their promise of Clean & Pollution Free Environment.