UREA PLANT 3: PRILLING TOWER FOUNDATION LAID

Togliattiazot, a major Russian producer of ammonia, provides an update on the progress of the 2,200 Mtpd Urea Plant 3 construction.

The laying of the foundation for the prilling tower, a key component of the facility, has finished at the Urea Plant 3 site.

This took three days. Over 2,700 m3 of concrete was placed using three concrete pumps being continuously fed from over 500 mixers. The tests demonstrated that the structure fully meets the industrial safety requirements.

On the foundation, a tower crane was installed and commissioned to be further used to place concrete at elevations above 3 meters. Concreting of the tower structure is expected to start shortly.

What is special about this project is that sliding formworks, an advanced construction practice, will be used.

– This method allows moving the formworks up without removing or taking it apart, and placing new concrete on top of the layer already hardened. In order to ensure concrete homogeneity and cold joints, the work will be done on a 24/7 basis for more than 50 days, said Project Manager Alexander Postnov, Togliattiazot Economic and Financial Vice President.

The installation of rebars for the prilling tower will involve 40 skilled employees from a contractor. The structure will be built 2 meters per day, its overall height will be 107 meters, it will be 14.6 meters in diameter.

Urea Plant 3 is being constructed in compliance with all industrial safety requirements, and considering the main operating plant - Urea Plant 2 prilling tower is close to the site. In particular, a safety plan has been developed and is strictly followed, which considers the operating conditions at Urea Plant 2 and the use of personal protective equipment.

Presently, 401 contractor’s employees and 20 units of heavy machinery are working at Urea Plant 3 site. Earthworks involving installation of underground utilities and foundations for the structure bearing points, and extensive concreting, are underway. The builders are expecting to shortly lay the foundations for piperacks and all above-ground structures.

Editor reference:

Prilling tower

This is the most important part of the urea plant which produces finished urea by cooling the freely falling melt droplets followed by their solidification in the countercurrent cooling air stream. Today, this prilling method (producing prills of a uniform size by spraying the melt in a tower with upward-flowing air) is the most common process in the world.

About TOAZ Urea Plant 3

October 2018, Togliattiazot launched the construction of Urea Plant 3 at the Togliatti site. The plant’s design capacity will be 2,200 Mtpd of urea, increasing the company’s current urea production capacity by more than 70%.

The project will cost RUR 25bn. It is financed from TOAZ’ internal and borrowed funds. March 2018, Togliattiazot signed a 9-year loan agreement worth of €180mn with the banking syndicate of Commerzbank AG (Zurich, Switzerland) and Landesbank Baden-Wuerttemberg (Stuttgart, Germany). The guarantor is the Swiss Export Credit Agency (SERV).

The plant design was developed jointly with Casale S.A. (Lugano, Switzerland) based on best available techniques in industrial and environmental safety to guarantee an appreciable reduction in atmospheric emissions.

The plant is expected to be commissioned in 2021.

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About Togliattiazot

Public Joint-Stock Company Togliattiazot (TOAZ) is the leading ammonia producer in Russia, one of the three companies in the world whose capacity allows producing more than 3 million tons of this product per year. TOAZ is also one of the key urea producers in Russia, producing urea formaldehyde concentrate and other chemical products that are in demand on 5 continents.

Togliattiazot is one of the largest taxpayers and employers in the Samara Region and is one of the largest Russian companies according to RBC, Forbes and Expert.

In 2019, Togliattiazot celebrates the 40th anniversary of the plant: TOAZ produced the first ammonia on April 7, 1979.

For more info about TOAZ, please visit www.toaz.ru and social media sites.