Produção de ureia a partir do gás de síntese obtido dos carvões minerais do sul do brasil: avaliação técnica e econômica

Abstract

Increasingly, population growth and the lack of nutrients in the soil have become a problem to meet the demand for food worldwide. As a result, the demand for fertilizers grows as a solution to this problem. Nitrogen fertilizers are known for their significant impact on the growth and development of crops, given that the absence of nitrogen in plants hinders their development. Among nitrogen fertilizers, urea has the highest concentration of nitrogen in its composition (45%). Currently, Brazil has only two manufacturing units, currently leased by Unigel. The production of these two factories is around 650 thousand tons of urea per year. However, the amount produced does not meet the demand of Brazilian rural producers (about 7 million tons), which leaves the country dependent on imports at high prices. As an alternative to improve the current situation of the urea market in Brazil, the present work technically and economically evaluates the synthesis section of urea production using synthesis gas obtained from mineral coals in the southern region of Brazil using the Stripping process CO2 by Stamicarbon. As a result, a plant producing 2.685.099,61 tons of granulated urea per year was obtained, operating with an efficiency of 83,26% and a cost price of R$259,20 per ton of urea produced. Contrary to the pattern adopted by industries using ammonia and carbon dioxide, in this work urea is produced from ammonia and synthesis gas produced from coal. For this, the synthesis section for urea production was simulated. With the data extracted from the simulation, technical and economic evaluations were carried out on the feasibility of implementing this project.