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Applied Metallurgy and Corrosion Control pp 419–455Cite as

Material Selection and Performance in Fertilizer Industry

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Abstract

Fertilizer plant has three basic units, viz. hydrogen, ammonia and urea. Hydrogen is produced by reforming at high temperatures in catalyst packed reformer tubes. Reformed gas after secondary reformer is cooled and hydrogen separated from CO2. Then ammonia is produced by reacting hydrogen with nitrogen under high temperature and pressure. The materials used at high temperatures are subjected to oxidation, high-temperature hydrogen attack, temper embrittlement and nitriding. The corrosion in hydrogen plant in low-temperature section is due to CO2. Urea is manufactured by reacting CO2 and NH3 at high pressure and the intermediate chemical formed carbamate is highly corrosive and the stripper section requires the maximum attention. The chapter describes the problems in different units and how over the years collaboration between process licensors and alloy developers has helped in developing new alloys for hydrogen reformer, resistance to metal dusting and carbamate corrosion.

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  1. Engineers India Ltd, New Delhi, India

    Amiya Kumar Lahiri

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  1. Amiya Kumar Lahiri
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Correspondence to Amiya Kumar Lahiri .

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Lahiri, A.K. (2017). Material Selection and Performance in Fertilizer Industry. In: Applied Metallurgy and Corrosion Control . Indian Institute of Metals Series. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-4684-1_11

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