AmmoniaCasale

UreaCasale

MethanolCasale

CasaleChemicals
 The most Advanced
Technologies for
unbeatable performances:
Casale’s way to face the present and future challenges of the
fertilizer, methanol and syngas industries

1. History of the Casale Group investments.

With its High Efficiency urea reactor
a complete range of services and
technologies for project implementation,
The Casale Group has been active in trays and various novel revamping complete plant revamping and new plant
the field of technology development and technologies, Urea Casale has given construction, with full use of innovations
engineering for 85 years, beginning in urea producers a way to increase their and experience. These services
1921 when Dr. Luigi Casale developed installed capacity with low capital cost. include: technical audits – advisory
one of the first processes for the With the ARC methanol converter, and consultancy services for improved
synthetic production of ammonia and Methanol Casale has enabled ICI plant performance; feasibility studies;
founded Ammonia Casale. Over the methanol plants to increase production licensing of proprietary technologies;
years the company has diversified and with the same gas feed and decrease basic & detailed engineering; project
presently the Casale Group, formed of operating costs. management; procurement services;
four independent companies: Ammonia The success of the technologies plant construction management;
Casale, Urea Casale, Methanol Casale developed by the Casale Group is plant commissioning, start-up and
and Casale Chemicals, offers its services evidenced by the number of contracts optimization; project contracting on
in the fields of ammonia, urea, methanol awarded to the companies of the a turn-key basis; after-sales technical
and derivatives production. Group in the last twenty years, which is servicices.
From the very beginning, the success indicated in Table 1.
of the Group was linked to its ability to
develop innovations and introduce them
to the market. Casale’s dedication to the
Table 1: Contracts awarded to
Casale Group in the last 20 years
2. Present and future
development of innovative technologies
to respond to the challenges of the Ammonia Casale 230
challenges
industry began with its founder, who Urea Casale 107 At present, the main driving force in the
developed one of the first ammonia Methanol Casale 46 market for natural gas-based fertilizers
processes. This process was innovative is the increase in gas costs in certain
as it was the first to produce anhydrous Casale Chemicals 127 producing regions. This is having the
ammonia and the first to become Group Total 510 following impact on the market:
available to any producer, opening the • a large amount of production is moving
way to the growth of the modern ammonia As a result of all of these contracts, 51% from areas with high gas cost to ones
production industry. This trend has been of ammonia, 39% of methanol and 35% with low cost.
preserved and nurtured as central to of urea are now produced worldwide • alternative feedstocks, cheaper than
the company’s culture by subsequent with Casale technologies or equipment. natural gas, must be used to produce
management teams. Innovations and Casale’s attitude to innovation is further fertilizer in areas with high gas cost or
diversification have been the driving evidenced by the fact that, over the same where natural gas is not abundant.
force of Casale Group in the last twenty period of time, the group has filed about • new plants are required both based on
five years, and they have been the key to 1200 patents all over the world. natural gas and alternative feedstocks.
most of its past and recent successes. The Group has physically grown Increasingly these will be of larger
Casale Group’s innovative concepts over considerably in the last twenty years and capacities.
the last twenty years have found wide has recently built its own office building • revamping of older plants located in
acceptance in the market, making a in Lugano with 3300 m2 of working area, low gas cost areas is required to increase
great contribution to the progress of the housing about 145 people. The Group their capacity
ammonia, urea and methanol industries. has performed projects worth over • revamping of older plants located
With the axial-radial catalyst bed and the e100m, with over 200,000 engineering in high gas cost areas is required to
‘in-situ’ modification concept, Ammonia man-hours per single project (including increase their efficiency to remain
Casale opened the way to improve external resources). competitive.
existing ammonia plants with low The companies in the Group can offer

1
The same trend is observed in the The essential and general advantages of
methanol industry even though the the axial-radial catalyst bed concept are:
industry focus, in recent years, has a) the low pressure drop that allow the use
been more upon the installation of new, of small-size catalyst, which translates
very large plants. This could lead to the into higher conversion efficiency, b) a
availability of methanol at low cost and very high catalyst filling degree c) the
so drive interest in promoting the use of simplicity of the mechanical design, with
methanol to produce DME and olefins, only the two vertical perforated walls and
diversifying the use of natural resources. one bottom closure plate, d) the absence
Innovative effort has to be aimed at of a top cover that makes maintenance
the needs of the market, and Casale and catalyst change operations very
is following different strategies for the easy. Thanks to these advantages, the
different areas in which the companies synthesis loop can be de-bottleneck for
are involved. capacity increase and, at the same time
a saving in the energy consumption is
obtained.
3. Fertilizer and methanol
Axial-radial pre-reformer
plant revamping Gas Distribution in an axial-radial catalyst bed
The axial-radial pre-reformer is used to
The Casale Group has vast experience in commercialisation. In the last 20 years, increase the capacity of existing primary
the revamping of fertilizer and methanol Ammo-nia Casale has gained a leading reforming units or to reduce the size of
plants, with more than 330 plants position in revamping ammonia plants the primary reformer in new plants, as it
revamped in the last 25 years. Combining thanks to continuous technological can perform around 10% of the primary
its deep know-how with its advanced development. During this time, more reforming reaction.
technologies, the Casale Group can than 170 ammonia plants have been The characteristics of the axial-radial
tackle the most difficult challenges revamped by Ammonia Casale. pre-reformer, which is based on the axial-
in terms of plant revamping. Capacity A brief outline of Ammonia Casale most radial catalyst bed design, are as follows:
increases of up to 60%-80%, and in significant technologies is given in the • low pressure drop
some cases even more, and significant next section. • use of small-size catalyst
energy savings can now be obtained • low operating temperature of the
with the revamping technologies and Axial-radial catalyst beds vessel wall The low pressure drop is a
schemes developed by Casale. This technology has been developed in key factor
Every revamping project is developed on order to offer to the industry a simple
a case-by-case basis, and Casale uses and cost-effective way to improve the in obtaining capacity increase with
the best combination of its technologies performance of existing ammonia minimum investment, as it minimizes
to reach the project targets. The converters. The first applications were the modifications required to the natural
following general revamping philosophy focused at reducing the ammonia plant’s gas compressor, or, in case of plants
is, however, followed for every project: energy consumption, which was already without the compressor, it can avoid the
• the plant should always be upgraded a very important issue for the ammonia installation of a natural gas blower.
with the most modern technologies industry. This technology has turned out The small-size catalyst has the
• maximise efficiency of existing to be one of the most efficient designs, advantages of having a higher sulphur
equipment, especially in the synthesis in terms of performance and simplicity, pickup and a higher activity. This means
section for de-bottlenecking ammonia and shift a catalyst longer life, since sulphur is
• minimise the duration of any plant converters and for achieving drastic the main poison, and the possibility of
shutdown increases in capacity, as more and more minimizing the catalyst volume.
• minimise modification to the existing is requested by the industry. The axial-radial pre-reformer keeps
plant In addition to ammonia and shift all the characteristics of mechanical
converters it can also be applied to pre- simplicity with easy catalyst handling
With this philosophy, Casale tries to keep reforming reactors, demonstrating its typical of the axial-radial design.
the return period on project investment flexibility and economical convenience. Another advantage of the pre-reformer
as short as possible. Outside the ammonia field, it has in terms of energy saving is that it
In the next sections, an overview is given also been applied in methanol and transforms all higher hydrocarbons
of the most significant technologies used formaldehyde synthesis reactors. To date to methane, and performs part of the
by the different companies of the Casale Casale has successfully put about 500 reforming reactions, thus producing
Group for the revamping of fertilizer and axial-radial catalyst beds into service. some hydrogen. These two actions
methanol plants. In an axial-radial catalyst bed most enable the increase of the preheating
(about 90%) of the gas passes through temperature of the process gas, and also
Ammonia Casale the catalyst bed in a radial direction. The the reduction of the steam to carbon
Ammonia Casale, founded in 1921, balance passes down through a top layer ratio, therefore reducing the energy
is the oldest company of the Casale of catalyst in an axial direction, thus consumption of the primary reforming
Group and one of the oldest leading eliminating the need for a top cover on section.
engineering firms operating in the field the catalyst bed, as is the case in a pure
of ammonia production, pioneering its radial design.

2
 Furthermore, the axial-radial shift
converter, due to its small catalyst size,
is more resistant to poisons, granting a
longer catalyst life with smaller loaded
volumes. An existing shift converter
can easily be transformed to the axial-
radial design by introducing new vertical
cylindrical perforated inlet and outlet
walls in prefabricated sections, which
are assembled inside the existing
converter vessel.

The new design has also the following

additional features:
• the catalyst is protected from water
droplets carried over from any upstream
locations;
• different volumes of catalyst can be
loaded with no need for mechanical
modifications;
• it is easy to operate.

Axial-radial synthesis converter Three bed indirectly-cooled ammonia converter

Axial-Radial Shift Converter The ammonia converter is one of the
most critical items when planning a
Axial-radial shift converter revamp to save energy or increase
The new design developed by Ammonia projects in terms of capacity increase and
capacity, and Ammonia Casale has reduction in energy consumption. Casale
Casale for shift converters is based on developed various synthesis converter
the used of the axial-radial catalyst bed now has more than 140 converters on-
designs to be able to offer to the industry stream, out of which about 50 are “in-
and can be applied both to revamping always the most efficient and advanced
and to new converters. situ” modifications and about 40 are
solution for its needs. three-bed inter-cooled full bore opening
The shift conversion section is often one All Casale ammonia converter designs
of the main bottlenecks in an ammonia converters.
are based on the axial-radial bed design For optimal and safest operating
plant, particularly as the catalyst ages that guarantees highest efficiency, with
and loses activity. The new axial-radial conditions, the Casale axial-radial
the use of 1.5-3 mm size catalyst, and ammonia converter design also allows
configuration has an inherently low lowest pressure drop.
pressure drop over the catalyst bed, and fully independent control of the inlet
One fundamental innovation introduced temperature of each catalyst bed.
this makes it possible to use a smaller- by Casale in synthesis converter design,
sized catalyst, which is more active and which also contributes to reaching higher
more resistant to poisons. efficiency, is the three-bed configuration, Pseudo-isothermal synthesis converter
If the plant capacity needs to be normally with inter-bed heat exchangers. In order to cope with demands for
increased, the transformation of the This configuration, introduced by very large increases in plant capacity,
existing shift converters into axial-radial Casale in the late 80’s, gives maximum requiring the highest possible increase in
shift converters can de-bottleneck the thermodynamic efficiency and the converter efficiency in order to maintain
shift section. The lower pressure drop highest catalyst utilization. the feasibility of the revamping approach,
will, in fact, eliminate the hydraulic Another fundamental innovation Ammonia Casale has developed the
constraints allowing the system to introduced by Casale is the “in- pseudo-isothermal ammonia synthesis
operate with a higher gas flow, and, at the situ” modification of bottle-shaped converter, which is able to push the
same time, reduce the specific energy converters of the type found in many efficiency of the Casale converter even
consumption. Moreover, the higher Kellogg plants. This concept allows the further then the three beds intercooler
efficiency of the small size catalyst will revamping of existing converters without design. This converter, based on direct
allow increasing the conversion even having to replace the converter itself, heat removal from the catalyst bed with
if the residence time and the steam with a considerable reduction of the plate elements, reaches the ultimate
to carbon ratio are decreased as a investment cost. The Casale axial-radial converter efficiency. The catalyst beds,
consequence respectively of the capacity ammonia converter design also enables design according to the axial-radial bed
increase and other modifications as part the recovery of the reaction heat at the concept, are always operating along the
of the plant revamping. highest temperature level, generating maximum reaction rate curve.
high-pressure steam. Two pseudo-isothermal ammonia
The higher conversion will give also converters are in operation. A more
a lower average CO concentration at The continuous development and detailed description of this type of
the outlet, correspondingly increasing improvement of Casale ammonia technology is given in the section
the ammonia production obtained converters has enabled us to tackle covering methanol technologies.
from a given amount of process gas. more and more challenging revamping

3
Secondary reformer burner
Ammonia Casale has developed, through Casale has recently revamped, or is
its sister company Casale Chemicals, currently revamping, various plants
a new secondary reformer burner originally designed according to different
design utilizing advanced fluid dynamic technologies such as Kellogg, CF Braun,
simulation techniques. The Casale FW and Chemico. Capacity increases in
advanced secondary reformer burner the range of 10% to 25%, and in one
achieves the following goals: case 50%, have been obtained with
• low pressure losses in both the air and these revamps.
primary reformer streams (<1 bar in the
air stream);
• low temperatures at the burner
Urea Casale Casale-Dente high efficiency trays.
Urea Casale was established in 1991
surfaces exposed to flame;
and from the beginning its activity has • separate and distributed paths through
• superior mixing in the flame;
concentrated on the revamping of urea the tray are provided to guarantee a
• reduced flame length, avoiding catalyst
plants, rapidly building up its know-how steady state and uniform flow of the two
impingement even at high operating
and experience in this field. Thanks to phases throughout the whole reactor;
loads;
intensive and successful technological • these separated paths through the tray
• soot-free combustion;
development, Urea Casale has been give a very high mixing efficiency between
• homogeneous gas composition and
able to rapidly penetrate the market, vapour and liquid in order to obtain very
temperature distribution at the catalyst
revamping 87 plants since its foundation. high mass- and heat- transport between
bed entrance;
The most important technologies liquid and vapour phase;
developed by Urea Casale are as follows: • the diameter of the generated vapour
• protection of the refractory lining from
the hot core of the flame through proper bubbles is smaller than in any previous
recirculation of the reacted gases, due
Casale-Dente high efficiency trays design, increasing the interfacial surface
This was one of the first technologies to for mass and heat transfer.
to a special burner design (max. wall
be developed by Urea Casale and still is • very high mixing within the liquid
temperature 700-800°C).
a fundamental element for any revamp phase is obtained. With this unique
aimed at increasing the capacity and design, thanks to the very high mass
The new burner design also gives
reducing the energy consumption. and heat transfer obtained, the amount
great benefits for plant revamping,
Developed through an accurate of NH3 and CO2 transferred into the
as it reduces the pressure loss in the
understanding and modelling of the urea liquid phase is maximised, therefore
process air, thus allowing increases in
reaction system, the Casale-Dente high maximising the amount of NH3 and CO2
air compressor capacity and/or reducing
efficiency trays (HET) design improves transformed into urea and reaching a
energy consumption. Increased service
the tray geometry, producing much very close approach to equilibrium.
life of the catalyst and/or a catalyst
better mixing between the liquid and So far the Casale-Dente HET are
volume reduction is also obtained.
vapour phases. operating in more than 75 urea plants,
Five secondary reformer burners
The new trays are, in fact, made of and have produced significant increases
are in operation and two are under
several inverted U beams with large in the efficiency of the reactors.
construction.
perforations for liquid passage and small
perforations for gas passage, and are Casale high efficiency hydrolyser
designed in such a way that: One issue that has become very
important in the urea industry is the
elimination of pollutant compounds. In
order to eliminate pollutants from liquid
Secondary reformer burner. emissions, Casale has developed a new
increased efficiency hydrolyser, called the
Advanced ammonia plant revamping high efficiency hydrolyser (HEH), which
schemes enables a user to completely eliminate
In addition to the various technologies urea from the process condensate.
described above, which are focused The Casale high efficiency hydrolyser
on improving the efficiency of the key makes efficient use of the stripping
equipment items of ammonia plants, action of steam to remove the NH3 and
Ammonia Casale has developed various CO2 from the treated urea plant waste
innovative revamping schemes to water condensate in order to maximize
drastically increase plant capacity and the hydrolysis of the urea content. The
reduce energy consumption. Based on efficiency is enhanced by the fact that
the combination of the most appropriate the hydrolyser is divided into two zones,
technology for improving efficiency of the with a fresh steam re-injection after the
key items with modification to the process first zone, in order to keep the driving
steps, these schemes can reach capacity force for the NH3 and CO2 removal as
increases of up to 60-80 % and reductions high as possible.
in energy consumption of 10-20%. 25% capacity increase in ammonia plant. It is, in fact, very important to eliminate

4
as many products of the hydrolysis concept, with the addition of a HP
reaction (NH3, CO2) from the liquid as carbamate condenser, a HP decomposer
and a reactor, reutilising the existing
one either as primary or as secondary
reactor, depending on the required
capacity increase, and adding a second
one. Due to the much higher conversion
obtained, the existing back-end of the
plant can be reutilised at higher capacity
with only minor modifications.
Seven plants have been revamped with
the HEC process, achieving capacity
increases up to 70%-80%, and two more
are currently being revamped.

VRS (vapour recycle system) process

This technology has been developed for
High Efficiency Hydrolyser. the revamping of stripping plants and
is used in certain cases to drastically
increase the capacity of these plants.
possible, since their presence tends to The VRS concept envisages a separate
slow down the hydrolysis. circulation of recycle water and recycle Conventional total recycle plant revamped
with the HEC concept.
Both zones are provided with Casale- NH3 and CO2, i.e.:
Dente HETs, which divide them into • the carbamate solution obtained in the low water content, obtaining high CO2
compartments. In each compartment downstream process sections, before conversion and stripping efficiencies and
the liquid is separated from vapour being sent the HP section, is decomposed having less water throughout the whole
(containing NH3 and CO2), creating a in an HP decomposer working in parallel plant.
multiplicity of streams of vapours, which to the existing stripper. Thanks to the increase in efficiency
are reinjected into the liquid in the form • the vapours thus obtained, very rich and the decrease of water content, the
of a column of small bubbles, maximizing in NH3 and CO2, are sent to the HP existing plant can be re-utilized at higher
the mass and heat transfer. Section, while the remaining solution, capacity with only minor modifications.
With Casale HEH and one or two stripping enriched in water, is sent back to the With this approach, an increase in
columns, it is possible to completely back-end of the plant. capacity up to 50% or higher can be
eliminate NH3 and urea from the process By adding a new VRS decomposition obtained.
condensatem reaching residual values section in parallel to the existing plant,
lower than 3 ppm. Existing hydrolysers practically only the NH3 and CO2
of certain types can be also conveniently contained in the carbamate are sent
revamped to the HEH technology just by back to the synthesis section, while the
changing the internals. water is almost totally sent back to the
Currently the Casale high efficiency recycling and waste water treatment
hydrolysers are in use in 20 urea plants. sections. As a consequence, the HP
synthesis loop will operate with very

HEC (high efficiency combined) process

The development of this process opened
the way to very large capacity increases,
50% or more, in conventional total Vapors rich in

recycle plants. The process is based on

NH3 and CO2
NEW DECOMPOSITION
SECTION
the combination of a conventional total Almost
recycle reactor (secondary reactor) with pure H2O

a very efficient “once-through” reactor

(primary reactor) having upstream a MP and/or LP
carbamate condenser to control the
NH3 H 2O
DECOMPOSITION FINISHING
REACTION &
CO2 & UREA
heat balance, and a HP decomposer SECTION
RECYCLING WASTEWATER TREAT.
SECTIONS
downstream to recycle most of the
unreacted NH3 and CO2 directly into
the secondary reactor. The HEC has the
unique feature of achieving a very high HP DECOMPOSITION
&
average CO2 conversion, and low energy RECYCLING
SECTION
consumption.
The capacity of conventional total recycle
plants can be drastically increased,
by 50% or more, by applying the HEC Stripping plant revamped according to the VRS concept

5
 methanol plant revamping. The following
Section outlines the most important
technologies developed by Methanol
Casale.
CARBAMATE
Axial-radial pre-reformer
SCRUBBER The same technology used for ammonia
plants is also used for methanol plant
revamping.

REACTOR HPCC ARC synthesis converter

(FULL CONDENSERTM) The ARC synthesis converter is basically
an adiabatic, quench cooled, single
vessel converter with very effective
NH3 quench mixing. This design was originally
developed to increase the efficiency
of the ICI quench lozenge converter,
but it has also been successfully used
for brand new converters. The main
characteristic of the ARC converter, i.e.
the very efficient mixing zone between
the beds, allows for a temperature
spread at the inlet of the next bed of only
STRIPPER a few degrees. This eliminates hot spots
inside the bed, which are responsible for
catalyst deterioration, and by-product
formation, and allows operating the beds
at very low inlet temperatures.
CO2 LP. DECOMP. Additional features are the simplicity of
the design and the high catalyst volume
Split Flow Loop configuration. achievable. Thanks to these features, a
revamping of an ICI methanol converter
with ARC design will bring: a) high carbon
Split-Flow-Loop process and Full- the inerts that are sent to the scrubber, efficiency; b) very low by-product levels;
Condenser design and sent, as carbamate, to the reactor c) longer catalyst life. Due to its simplicity
The development of these two through a new ejector. and efficiency, the ARC design has been
technologies is the latest result of ● the second part goes straight to the used for the revamping of many ICI
Urea Casale’s constant research into reactor. methanol converters as well as for grass
improvements in urea plants stemming root plants with a single unit capacity
form the market’s need for more efficient In this way a major part of the inerts exceeding 3,000 t/d.
and economical ways to increase plant are not sent to the reactor with a positive
capacity. These technologies are, in fact, effect on its efficiency. Thanks to the Pseudo-isothermal synthesis converter
a powerful tool to increase the capacity additional reaction volume created in The ARC is a very simple and efficient
of CO2 stripping plants in the most the HPCC, operating full of liquid, and converter, but being an adiabatic
economic way. to the lower amount of inerts in the converter, it has the intrinsic limitations
The Full-Condenser design drastically reactor, which de-bottleneck the reactor of this type of design. In order to go
improves the existing vertical HP itself and the stripper, and to the higher beyond these limitations without
carbamate condensers by changing the efficiency of the HPCC the entire HP incurring all of the limitations and
falling film configuration to the more loop is de-bottlenecked and capacity mechanical complexity of conventional
efficient bubble flow configuration. With increases of up to 50% can be reached. isothermal converters, Methanol Casale
only few internal modifications, the three plants have been revamped with has developed the pseudo-isothermal
existing HPCC will operate as a much these technologies to reach 50% higher methanol synthesis converter.
more efficient submerged condenser capacity, and three more applications This converter, based on direct heat
with natural circulation. are under implementation. removal from the catalyst bed with
Once transformed to the Full-Condenser plate elements, reaches the maximum
design, the HPCC can be operated as a Methanol Casale converter efficiency, with the catalyst
total condenser, allowing the application Methanol Casale was founded in 1994 beds operating always along the
of the Split-Flow-Loop process which and, following the trend established by maximum reaction rate curve, i.e.
debottlenecks the rest of the HP loop. Ammonia Casale, has dedicated a lot obtaining the maximum possible
With this new process the vapours from of effort to develop technologies for the conversion. This is obtained by feeding
the stripper are split into two parts: revamping of methanol plants. With 30 in different quantities of cooling fluid
● one major part goes to the HPCC, plants revamped since its foundation, at different position in the plates, thus
where it is totally condensed, except for Methanol Casale has become a leader in enabling the removal of differential

6
quantities of heat in different parts of burner design. of 25% has been obtained, with final
the converter. The Casale ATR design is conceptually capacities between 3,000 t/d and 3,500
very simple: the oxygen stream is t/d. Furthermore, Methanol Casale is
introduced at a high velocity axially at presently studying a capacity increase of
the top of the cylindrical combustion almost 100%.
chamber, while the process gas is
introduced from one side at the top of the
cylindrical chamber, prior to the burner 4. New plant construction
tip, and perpendicular to the oxygen Boosted by the creativity necessary
tube. To reduce the non-uniformities to improve existing plants and by the
introduced by the asymmetric inlet of experience gained from the successful
the process gas, the burner is provided applications of many new concepts,
with a distributor placed upstream of the in recent years the Casale Group has
burner tip. developed innovative processes for
The main features of the Casale design grass-roots fertilizer and methanol
for ATR burners are: plants to respond to the growing demand
• fast and even mixing between oxygen for new plants in low gas cost areas.
and process gas; Ammonia Casale has traditionally
• uniform temperature and composition been involved in designing grass-roots
with better approach to equilibrium; ammonia plants, with more than 200
• shorter flame length, with low risk units build in the first half of its history.
of damage to the catalyst resulting in More recently, even though it has been
maximum catalyst performance over mostly focused on plant revamping, it
a longer period, together with lower has also increasingly developed and
pressure drop. supplied technologies for grass-roots
• low temperature of the reformer plants.
Pseudo-isothermal converter refractory lining, with no hot spots on the Ammonia Casale has participated to the
lining surface. design to 7 grass-roots plants through
The amount of cooling fluid fed to the • a water-cooled burner tip to ensure its licensees and designed 36 coal-
different parts of the plates can be high flexibility in operation and high based plant, supplying the design of the
controlled, so that it is possible to modify reliability (an almost unlimited operating synthesis loops. Some of these loops
the temperature profile in the catalyst life is expected). have been designed to run with syngas
bed, adapting it to specific needs and coming from gasification plants making
making possible to combine, in a single This technology is already operating use of alternative feedstocks.
design, the same operating flexibility of a in four methanol plants and in two Ammonia Casale has also completely
quench converter with the high efficiency ammonia plants. designed a 2,050 t/d grass-roots plant
of an isothermal design with indirect that is in operation since more than two
cooling. years. Four more 2050 MTD plants have
The catalyst beds can be designed been designed by Casale and are work on
either according to the standard axial them is in progress. This plant has been
configuration or to the axial-radial bed designed around conventional steam
concept, depending on requirements. reforming technology, but incorporates
With this design, Methanol Casale can all the most advanced technologies of
cope with increasing demands for very Ammonia Casale to make it as efficient
large increases in plant capacity and of as possible. Through a joint development
grass root plants with mega capacities, with Lurgi, Ammonia Casale has also
offering a very cost-effective solution. developed a very innovative process that
Four pseudo-isothermal methanol allows the design of single trains plants
converters are in operation with with capacities of 4,000 t/d and higher.
capacity up to 3,400 t/d, and one has In the field of methanol, Methanol
been designed for a new plant under Casale has designed and supplied two
construction to produce 7,000 t/d in a grass-roots plants, of 1,350 and 1,600
single vessel. ATR burner t/d capacity, as well as the world’s
Large capacity increase using Methanol largest methanol plant, currently at
ATR unit an early stage of realisation, with a
In order to drastically increase the Casale technologies capacity of 7,000 t/d. Thanks to its
capacity of conventional synthesis gas Utilising the most appropriate of its pseudo-isothermal converter and to its
generation units in methanol plants, proprietary technologies, combined innovative ATR design Methanol Casale
one of the most efficient ways is the with the correct modification to the is in a position to design very large
installation of an additional autothermal process steps, Methanol Casale makes methanol units, 7,000 t/d and more, in
reformer (ATR) unit. Methanol Casale has drastic capacity increases in existing a real single train with a single vessel
developed a proprietary design for ATR plants possible. In two of the most converter.
units, which is based on a very efficient recent projects, a capacity increase

7
Casale grass-roots urea plant Casale grass-roots methanol plant. Casale grass-roots ammonia plant

For grass-roots urea plants, Urea Casale methanol, contributing to the sales of HP process boilers, to improve their
has developed a new process, the Split- methanol plants. reliability.
Flow-Loop process, based on its Split- For these two processes, Casale is
Flow-Loop technology (see above) and applying its well established know-how 7. Conclusion
incorporating all of its most advanced and experience in the synthesis area
technologies, such as the Casale-Dente to the design of the reactors, reflecting So far, Casale’s traditional field of
high efficiency trays, the Full-Condenser their importance within the overall excellence has been the revamping of
design, and the HEH. Three plants are technology. existing units, which has contributed
operating according to this process and to saving large amounts of natural
one grass-root plants is being started-up. resources in terms of increased
6. R&D activities efficiency of natural gas use.
Such excellence has also secured for
5. Syngas production and new As can be seen from the large number
of innovative technologies developed,
Casale the position of a modern and
gas based routes to olefins the Casale Group has invested and is
reliable participant in licensing the
process design of new plants for the
and fuels still significantly investing in technology
development. The Casale R&D
production of ammonia, urea, methanol
and downstream products. ■
Two other chemicals deriving from department is also putting a lot of effort
synthesis gas are becoming more and into developing the right process design
more important; hydrogen and carbon models. For investigating, analysing
monoxide. Casale is therefore now and visualising complex phenomena,
working to develop innovative processes the R&D department avails itself of the
and equipment for these two products. right specialists and of advanced tools,
For hydrogen this is via improving the such as computer-aided techniques
traditional steam reforming route, while with applications ranging from chemical
for carbon monoxide the focus is on the process design to fluid dynamics
development of better partial oxidation evaluations.
reactors. One Casale improved POX Several of the technologies developed
burner for the production of CO is already by Casale are typical examples of how
in operation and a second one is under the combination of these tools and this
construction. expertise can lead to the development of
Casale is also working on the development innovative concepts.
of two new processes downstream of At present, to shape future Casale
methanol plants: the production of technologies, various R&D programs are
dimethyl-ether, DME, and of light olefins being implemented in different fields
from methanol, MTO, where ethylene (see previous sections), involving also
and propylene are produced with high the construction of pilot facilities.
yields and a variable production ratio In addition to new technologies, Casale
to cope with market demand. Olefins has also developed, and continue to
and DME may become, in the very near develop, innovative mechanical designs
future, new large and profitable uses for for very critical equipment, such as

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UreaCasale

MethanolCasale

CasaleChemicals