PROCESS AND APPARATUS FOR THE PRODUCTION OF AMMONIA

摘要

The invention relates to a novel production process for ammonia that is highly integrated as far as heat balance is concerned. According to a first aspect a gas turbine with extraction of process air, with electricity production coupled thereto, is used. The residual heat from the gas turbine is in the first instance returned to the process. The second aspect relates to a reformer section which comprises an (optional) prereformer, a primary reformer and a secondary reformer. An additional saving in energy is achieved by heat exchange in the primary reformer between the discharge stream from the secondary reformer and the stream from the prereformer. The third aspect of the invention relates to carrying out the conventional CO shift conversion in three steps at successively decreasing temperature instead of in the customary two steps.