In 2002, Toyo Engineering Corporation (TEC) was awarded the contract for capacity increase and energy saving project of Sichuan Chemical Works (SCW) Ltd., to be located at Chengdu, Sichuan province, China. The capacity of this urea plant, which was built by Toyo in 1976, has been increased from 1,620 t/d to 2,460 t/d with 30% saving of specific energy consumption. ACES21® technology is selected for this project, which is the largest in capacity to apply at a commercial plant. The project was executed in close collaboration among TEC, SCW and Chengda Chemical Engineering Corporation of China (CCECC).
Notwithstanding the first experience for SCW to operate ACES21® urea process, the plant has been started up smoothly by well trained operators under the Toyo’s supervision in February 2004. In October 2004, the performance test has been successfully completed.
ACES21® is advantageous in low investment cost and low energy consumption for urea production. A major feature of this technology is that it reduces the number of equipment in the urea synthesis loop to simplify the system, which lessens construction costs with the installation of the reactor on the ground in CCE stripping process (resultantly existing urea reactor can be re-utilized in revamp case). In addition, the operation conditions of synthesis section have been optimized under the lower operation pressure than the previous process. As a result, a remarkable reduction in energy consumption has been achieved.
Another project using ACES21® has been implemented to build a 1,725 t/d grass roots urea plant in Indonesia. The project is prospected to be completed in the middle of 2005.