World’s leading company in the design and project development of chemical plants, licensing of

technologies and supply of high end equipment and services for the petrochemical industry.
Stamicarbon is the licensing and IP center of Maire Tecnimont. Specialized in the fertilizer industry
with the pioneering vision to help enable the world to feed itself and improve the quality of life.
Currently, more than 240 urea plants around the world have already used our technology to add
nutrients to crops, replenish arable land and increase crop yields. Our three main service area's are:
1. LAUNCH: Create your plant. 2. ADVANCE: Optimize your existing plants. 3. EVOLVE: Upgrade
your plant to the next level.

In all CO2 stripping processes, ammonia and carbon dioxide are fed directly to the
synthesis section.

In a first fast exothermic reaction between ammonia and carbon dioxide, ammonium
carbamate is formed. The second reaction is the endothermic dehydration of
carbamate to urea and water. Optimum process conditions of approx. 145 bar and
180°C and a nitrogen / carbon (N/C) ratio of 3 are maintained.

The dehydration of ammonium carbamate is an equilibrium reaction. For this reason,

the reaction mixture from the reactor is subjected to high pressure stripping, using
carbon dioxide as the stripping agent to remove non-reacted ammonia and carbon
dioxide.

The stripper gases are sent to the pool condenser, where they are condensed in a pool
of liquid together with fresh ammonia and overhead vapors. The pool condenser is
basically a horizontal vessel with a submerged U-tube bundle. Low-pressure steam is
generated within the tubes of the heat exchanger. The pool condenser combines the
function of the conventional falling film-type carbamate condenser with part of the urea
reactor function. Thus, the reactor volume can be decreased by about 30-40%
compared with the conventional process. This is the particular advantage for high-
capacity single-line plants since the reactor is one of the heaviest items of equipment.

Exhaust gases, which are separated from the liquid at the reactor top, are scrubbed in a
high pressure and a low-pressure scrubber, thus minimizing ammonia emissions.

In view of the low ammonia and carbon dioxide concentrations in the stripped urea
solution, a separate high pressure ammonia recycling stage is not necessary. The
ammonia and carbon dioxide still contained in the urea solution discharged by the
stripper are recovered in the low pressure recirculation stage.
The urea solution leaving the recirculation section is further concentrated in the
evaporation section from approx. 74% to 96% or 98.5% by weight, depending on the
requirements of the downstream fluid bed granulation process. Evaporation takes place
in a vacuum section to minimize biuret formation.

The entire process condensate from the evaporation section is treated in the desorption
and hydrolysis section. Ammonia and carbon dioxide are stripped off in a stacked two-
desorber column whereas small amounts of urea are dissociated in the hydrolysis
column.

The purity of the treated condensate allows it to be used as make-up water for the
cooling water cycle. Furthermore, it may even be used as boiler feedwater after
polishing. Consequently, the Stamicarbon urea process has no waste water effluent