PROCESS GAS COOLING SYSTEMS

FOR NITRIC ACID PRODUCTION

 SCHMIDTSCHE SCHACK | ARVOS GROUP
1
SCHMIDTSCHE SCHACK, a division of the SCHMIDTSCHE SCHACK is a partner of the
ARVOS Group, was formerly ALSTOM Power world’s leading engineering companies,
Energy Recovery GmbH, which was formed contractors and operators in the chemical,
through a merger of the two traditional petrochemical and metallurgical industries.
companies Schmidt’sche Heissdampf
As a leading engineering company,
Gesellschaft mbH, Kassel and Rekuperator
­SCHMIDTSCHE SCHACK specializes in prod-
Schack GmbH, Düsseldorf in 1995. With
uct development, design and fabrication
headquarters and fabrication facilities
of state-of-the-art process gas cooling and
in Kassel, Germany, the company also
waste heat recovery systems for chemical
operates a branch office in Düsseldorf
and petrochemical reaction processes.
and has affiliated units in Wexford PA,
USA and Kobe, Japan.
 PROCESS GAS COOLING SYSTEMS DOWNSTREAM
2 OF CATALYTIC REACTION PROCESSES LIKE AMMONIA
COMBUSTION AND N2O DECOMPOSITION

SCHMIDTSCHE SCHACK supplies highly For the ground-breaking tertiary catalytic

sophisticated and boilers, globally un­­
rivaled in size, for mono and dual pressure
catalytic oxidation processes in nitric acid
and caprolactam production plants. The
world’s largest vessel ever built, with a
diameter of 7 meters, was designed and
fabricated by SCHMIDTSCHE SCHACK.
cracking process for adipic acid production
SCHMIDTSCHE SCHACK provides the waste
heat recovery system downstream of the
decomposition stage of nitrous oxide
(“laughing gas”) laden exhaust gases from
the process.

Figure 1: 7 m diameter ammonia combustion heating surface bundle ready for installation

Figure 2: Ammonia combustion for nitric acid production: 7 m girth flange Figure 3: Stainless steel economizer heating surface
ready for installation bundle ready for installation

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 HEAT RECOVERY IN MODERN NITRIC ACID PLANTS
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Nitric acid production takes place in two Depending on the specific process require­
steps. An ammonia/air mixture is oxidized ments typical steam parameters are 18 bara
to nitrogen oxides in the presence of to 55 bara at temperatures between 210 °C
platinum/rhodium catalyst gauze. Then and 500 °C.
nitrogen oxide is oxidized and absorbed by
SCHMIDTSCHE SCHACK has developed and
water to produce nitric acid. The oxidation
put into service reliable, maintainable heat
is a strongly exothermic process which
exchanger solutions at reasonable cost.
follows the equation:
Depending on the specific plant parameters
4 NH3 + 5 O2 + 4 NO + 6 H2O + 905 kJ forced circulation or natural circulation
systems are provided.
4 NH3 + 2 O2 + 2 N2 + 6 H2O + 1260 kJ
The heating surface bundles are fabricated
The result is a process gas with typically
from flat coil elements to allow a compact
68 vol.% N2, 10 vol.% NO, 6 vol.% O2,
single vessel design. If natural circulation
16 vol.% H2O. The hot process gas of 4 to
is selected vertically arranged shell & tube
13 bar pressure and up to 920 °C is cooled
evaporator heating surfaces are integrated
by generating superheated steam and
in the heat recovery unit.
by preheating the tail gas.
 CORROSION MECHANISM
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The start-up of a process gas cooler is a
critical phase from the perspective of
corrosion.
Nitric acid (HNO3) will be formed on the
“cold” heating surfaces at the moment the
process gas reaches the relevant dew point:
3 NO2 + H2O + 2 HNO3 + NO - 72 kJ
If NH3 gas slips through the catalyst gauze
during plant start-up, ammonium nitrate
is formed in the presence of HNO3 immedi­
ately at temperatures below 170 °C. The
build-up of ammonium nitrate, a corrosive
and strongly adhesive mass, is represented
in the following formula:
HNO3 + NH3 = NH4NO3
To avoid this corrosion mechanism it is
of great importance to warm up the “cold”
heating surfaces to a safe temperature
level during start-up. With optimized
boiler design and ideal material selection
SCHMIDTSCHE SCHACK has developed out-
standing methods to minimize corrosion.
At the same time, our customers benefit
from significantly reduced plant operation
costs, e.g. due to lower start-up steam
requirements.
Furthermore optimal material selection
helps to avoid corrosion mechanisms.

140
130 HNO3 dew point
120
110
100
Temperature [ºC]

90 Figure 5: 3D CAD dimensioning model of

80 Process gas:
H2O 15 vol.% an ammonia combustion process gas cooler
70
H2O saturation curve
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Gas pressure [bara]

Figure 4: Dew point of typical process gas composition

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 EMISSION REDUCTION
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Environmental protection is a top-priority
issue for SCHMIDTSCHE SCHACK. We under­
take great efforts to make our fabrication
processes ecologically sensitive and to
design sustainable products.
SCHMIDTSCHE SCHACK is committed to
implementing design features aimed
at minimizing the environmental impact
of industrial heat transfer processes.
One of the first steps taken long ago was
to apply highly efficient process heat
recovery methods in chemical reaction
processes. This enabled heat represented
as fuel-­energy to be saved and reused for
process applications or in steam turbine
cycles for electric power generation.
This results in environmental protection
benefits as well as in financial benefits
through cost savings in the production
plant operation.
Reducing greenhouse gas emissions like
N2O gas is another measure to protect
the environment being addressed by
SCHMIDTSCHE SCHACK. N2O emissions
can be diminished by installing secondary
abatement catalysts below the platinum/
rhodium gauzes. In this case a long basket
lifetime is ensured through a special
SCHMIDTSCHE SCHACK designed cooled
catalyst basket support system.
For optimal operation of a tertiary type
catalyst located downstream of the process
gas cooler unit a constant gas outlet temper­-
ature is beneficial to increase the catalyst
efficiency.
SCHMIDTSCHE SCHACK’s waste heat
reco­very systems have the design option
to operate at nearly constant gas outlet
temperatures over the full plant load range
of e.g. 70% to 110% nominal capacity if
equipped with suitable control equipment
offered by SCHMIDTSCHE SCHACK.
 SCHMIDTSCHE SCHACK DESIGN & FABRICATION
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SCHMIDTSCHE SCHACK waste heat reco­very
systems are custom designed with the
latest 3D CAD systems and FEM calculation
software combined with SCHMIDTSCHE
SCHACK engineers’ decades of experience.
Fabrication is performed at SCHMIDTSCHE
SCHACK’s own ideally suited workshops in
Germany as well as partner workshops in
Europe. All major standards, e.g. EN13445,
EN12952, AD 2000, ASME, IBR, Chinese
standards, customer specifications,
local codes, regulations and directives
(Pressure Equipment Directive 2014/68/EU)
can be fulfilled.

Figure 6: Heating surface coil with connection lines

Figure 7: Installation of inner wall coil element Figure 8: Assembly of wall coil element

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Figure 9: Final assembly of world’s largest process gas cooler
 RETROFIT AND DESIGN STUDIES
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Would you like us to conduct studies for
you? SCHMIDTSCHE SCHACK experts are
pleased to share their experience with
plant owners and operators to identify
ways of optimizing the operation of their
process heat recovery systems. A wealth of
experience in designing process gas cooler
systems is applied to analyze bottlenecks
via recalculation of the gas cooler system.
Several nitric acid plants have successfully
been optimized and retrofitted on the basis
of SCHMIDTSCHE SCHACK’s engineering
studies.

Figure 10: Burner hood for ammonia combustion process gas cooler

3.15
3.02
2.89
2.76
2.65
2.50
2.37
2.24
2.11
1.98
1.85
1.72
1.59
1.45
1.33
1.20
1.07
0.94
0.81
0.68
0.55

Figure 11: CFD study for optimizing an ammonia combustion burner hood

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 SELECTED REFERENCES
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SCHMIDTSCHE SCHACK has executed all sizes of waste heat
recovery systems for different applications in the chemical
and petrochemical industry (HNO3, NO and N2O plants).

Figure 12: Process gas cooler unit during final pressure test / Figure 13: Tailor-made process gas cooler with unique design for a revamp project
 Process gas cooling systems for nitric acid production 08/2015
SCHMIDTSCHE SCHACK | ARVOS GmbH
Ellenbacher Strasse 10
34123 Kassel, Germany
Phone +49-561-9527 111
info.shg@arvos-group.com

SCHMIDTSCHE SCHACK | ARVOS GmbH

Parsevalstrasse 9A
40468 Düsseldorf, Germany
Phone +49-211-4726-0
info.schack@arvos-group.com

www.schmidtsche-schack.com