Fertiliser manufacture

Fertilisers play a central role in supplying the steadily growing world population with food. Without technical gases such as nitrogen and hydrogen for ammonia synthesis, and other gas applications for the resulting fertilisers, this would not be possible. Messer supports you with expert knowledge and know-how when it comes to optimising existing plants. For example, the plant capacity of nitric acid plants can be increased by using oxygen and it is possible to increase the efficiency and reduce NO_x emissions.

Oil and Gas Refining

By definition, crude oil and natural gas are the raw materials of the petrochemical industry, with inert gases such as N₂ and CO₂ already used on a large-scale during their extraction. The processing of crude oil to the desired end products involves several steps. Again, gases from Messer are used in many of these process steps.

Petrochemistry

Petrochemistry is the production of chemical products from natural gas and suitable fractions of petroleum. The central process here is steam cracking, which supplies the most important petrochemical raw materials (mainly ethylene and propylene).These short-chain olefins are then further processed through a variety of chemical reactions to the raw materials and products of daily life. The BTX aromatics obtained from refinery processes also play an important role as raw materials.

Sulphur Chemistry

The raw material for sulphuric acid production is elemental sulphur, which is produced during the processing of fossil raw materials. Sulphur recovery is becoming more and more important due to falling emission limits and is usually realised using the Claus process. 90 % of the sulphur thus obtained is converted to sulphuric acid, which is one of the most technically important and highly produced basic chemicals, and is used to a great extent in fertiliser production.

Messer supports you with know-how in process optimisation, for example through the elimination of capacity bottlenecks.

Inertisation

When handling combustible liquids, gases and dusts there is a risk that explosive mixtures may form. These could be ignited by suitable ignition sources. Special protective measures are therefore required to avoid the risk of explosion or fire.            

Solvent Recovery and Waste Gas Purification

During production of chemicals or pharmaceutical agents, solvent-containing exhaust gases often escape from the reaction vessels. The displacement air from petrochemical tank farms often contains gasoline fumes, and HCFCs (Hydrochlorofluorocarbons) are released in the recycling of refrigerators.

Cooling of Reaction Vessels

Many processes for the manufacture of modern pharmaceuticals and chemicals involve reactions at quite low temperatures. The synthesis for organo-metallic compounds is a typical example. To maintain the temperature within the demanding range of -40 °C to -130 °C, the reaction heat must be dissipated rapidly and reliably.

Brine Chilling

Many production plants use industrial gases such as nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide or argon, which are stored in a cold, liquefied form. Before use, it is necessary to evaporate and heat the gases, whereby the refrigerant content is usually lost. With the EcoVap evaporator, the energy is used: Built into the return line of a refrigeration system, it transfers the liquefied-gas cold energy directly into the circulating coolant. The result is an efficient use of energy and reduced energy costs. Cooling systems work with the cooling of liquefied gases from the EcoVap evaporator in an environmentally friendly and efficient manner.