Stamicarbon announce participation in INITIATE project

A consortium, led by the Dutch research institution TNO, has received a grant of €21 million from the European commission under the Horizon 2020 framework programme (the INITIATE Project) to investigate and develop the potential of industrial symbiosis to convert residual steel gas emissions into resources for urea production.

Stamicarbon B.V., MET Development S.p.A and NextChem S.p.A. – all subsidiaries of Maire Tecnimont Group – participate in this consortium of steel, chemical and energy transition companies, research institutions, universities and industrial partners active in both the steel and fertilizer industry.

The INITIATE project will demonstrate a novel symbiotic and circular process that transforms residual steel gases into resources for urea production. The core of this process is a modular carbon-capture utilisation-and-storage (CCUS) technology, integrating the flexible conditioning of time dependent and carbon-rich steel gases with the synthesis of ammonia.

Throughout the project, these innovative technologies and their optimal integrated operations will be proven in real industrial settings at the facilities of Swerim in Luleå, Sweden, advancing to technology readiness level. The successful demonstration will enable to move forward with the construction of a first-of-a-kind plant at the scale of 150 tpd of urea within a timeframe of 5 years.

The future implementation of the INITIATE process holds enormous potential to reduce primary energy, raw material and green-house gases (GHG) emission intensities, compared to current practice in both the steel and fertilizer industry. This potential will consequently translate in significant social, economic and environmental opportunities for society as a whole, as the combined steel and urea sectors are directly responsible for 30% of all industrial carbon emissions and > 4% of the global annual GDP [ALLWOOD, J. M., et al., Sustainable Materials with Both Eyes Open, UIT Cambridge Ltd, (2012)]. Therefore, by coupling these two energy-intensive, but also valuable sectors, the INITIATE Project will be a key milestone towards the realisation of a carbon neutral and circular process industry.

Stamicarbon will be responsible for the commercial implementation plan. The main objective of the demonstration plant is to justify the viability and prove the capability to produce ammonia, while in the next phase the commercial implementation plan is focused to establish an industrial scale INITIATE plant reference for the production of urea.?Stamicarbon will lead the implementation plan with the support of its sister companies MET Development for the (commercial) development of the project and NextChem for the design and engineering thereof, together with the other consortium partners.

The objectives of this work package are to develop the plans for short-term deployment for the first-of- a kind modular INITIATE plant and to enable long-term roll out by maximising the replication potential.

The short-term plan will be in the form of a site specific pre-FEED for the production of urea grade suitable for AdBlue® (Diesel Exhaust Fluid) and/or liquid fertilizers at a capacity of 150 tpd of urea.

The long-term plan will take an open view and identify how to scale up the design and also create an inventory of successful symbiotic relationships enabled by STEPWISE between the steel and fertilizer industry.

Read the article online at: https://www.worldfertilizer.com/environment/08012021/stamicarbon-announce-participation-in-initiate-project/