OREANDA-NEWS. September 17, 2010. EuroChem opened a new granulated urea production line at its NAK Azot plant in Novomoskovsk, Tula region. With the introduction of the second line, the Urea-3 shop has reached its planned capacity of 3,150 tonnes/day.  This makes NAK Azot the largest urea plant in Europe with a daily capacity of 4,350 tonnes/day. A representative of the Government of the Russian Federation, the Governor of Tula Region, Vyacheslav Dudka and EuroChem CEO Dmitry Strezhnev cut the red ribbon at the opening ceremony.

Capital expenditure on the project will be over RUR 4.7bn, and the new automated manufacturing line will create 117 new jobs.

Construction of the line, which included the industry-leading European companies Stamicarbon and Chemoproject, took a total of three years to complete. Russia’s largest urea engineering and design organization, NIIK OJSC, took part in project as well.  Novomoskovsk-Remstroyservis, a EuroChem subsidiary, was the general contractor for construction and installation.

The new manufacturing unit will use the latest automated process control system (APCS), which will increase productivity and efficiency.

A fluid bed granulation technology was used for this line, as opposed to the old technology of urea production by means of prilling in a granulating tower. This process leads to a higher-quality product, increased productivity and reduced raw materials consumption per unit; energy consumption will be an industry-leading 0.9 Gcal per tonne of finished product.

Static durability of the new urea granules will increase by 77%.

Ecological aspects of the construction of the new manufacturing line were also a priority. In comparison with other Russian plants that manufacture prilled urea, ammonia and urea dust emissions will be lower by 32% and 36% respectively.

EuroChem is the only manufacturer of granulated urea in Russia.  The primary markets for the product are Western Europe and the United States.ф