Urea Production

Properties of Urea:Molecular Weight: - 60.05

Melting Point: - 132.7 C
Boiling Point: - Decomposes
Specific Gravity:- 1.335
Fairly soluble in water (110 g per 100 g @ 20 C, 135 g per 100 g @ 100 C)
Grades:- a) C.P., technical (containing 46% N)
b) Fertilizer:- granular coated with non-hygroscopic dust such as phosphate rock
c) Liquor:- mixtures of urea in NH3 solution

Raw Materials:The principal raw materials required for production of urea are CO2 from synthesis gas
manufacture and NH3.

Reactions:Reactions involved in production of urea are as follows:a) CO2 + 2NH3

b) NH4 COO NH2

NH4 COO NH2

Ammonium Carbamate
NH2 CO NH2
Urea

H= -37.4 kcal
H= +6.3 kcal

Undesirable side reaction:c) 2 NH2 CO NH2

NH2 CO NH CO NH2 + NH3

Biuret

Process Description:Ammonia and CO2 are compressed separately and added to the high pressure autoclave which
must be water-cooled due to highly exothermic nature of the reaction. The average residence
time in the autoclave, which is operated on a continuous basis, is 1.5-2 hours. A mixture of urea,
ammonium carbamate, H2O and unreacted NH3+ CO2 results.

This liquid effluent is let down to 27 atms and fed to a special flash-evaporator containing a gasliquid separator and condenser. Unreacted NH3, CO2, and H2O as a solution are thus removed
and recycled. An aqueous solution of carbamate-urea is passed to the atmospheric flash drum
where further decomposition of carbonate takes place. The off-gases from this step can either be
recycled or sent to NH3 processes for making chemical fertilizer.
The 80% aqueous urea solution can be used as is or sent to vacuum evaporator to obtain molten
urea containing less tha 1% of water. The molten mass is then sprayed into a prilling or granukar
solidification tower. To avoid formation of biuret percentages >1%, the temperature must be kept
just above the melting point for processing times of 1-2 seconds in this phase of the operation.

Major Engineering Problems:A) Production of granular urea (Prilling):Problem is biuret formation. Vacuum drying of 80% urea to 99+% and spraying to
air cool and solidify must be done just above the melting point of urea and with a
minimum residence time in the range of several seconds.

B) Heat dissipation in the autoclave:The exothermic heat of reaction can be removed by coils, wall cooling, or by
adding excess reactants to provide sensible heat pick-up.
C) Corrosion:This has been the major reason why the NH3-CO2 process was slow to develop.
High cost of silver or tantalum liners are used in the autoclaves with Hastelloy C,
titanium, stainless steel (321 SS), and aluminum alloys used in the other parts of
the plant. Minimum temperature and pressure conditions with excess NH3 are
desirable to reduce the severe corrosion rates. Under these conditions, stainless
steel can be used in the autoclave.