Acron Group, Moscow, reported that it has launched preparations for the overhaul of its Ammonia-2 unit at Veliky Novgorod in northwest Russia.
Completion is scheduled for 2023. The project will increase the unit’s operating capacity by more than 25 percent to 2,300 mt/d from 1,800 mt/d, ramping up the facility’s ammonia annual output capability by 175,000 mt.
Acron has also started a similar expansion of production capacity at its Ammonia-3 unit at Veliky Novgorod. The group awarded the revamp contracts for both units to KBR, Houston, in March (GM March 26, p. 34).
Once both projects are complete, ammonia output will increase by 375,000 mt/y, Acron said.
The group puts it current ammonia overall production capacity at Veliky Novgorod at 2.19 million mt/y (GM April 30, p. 32).
Acron said on July 5 it has also launched a large-scale overhaul of four urea units – units 1-4 – at the site. Completion of the project is scheduled for 2024 and will increase total capacity of the four units to 3,100 mt/d from the current 2,000 mt/d, boosting annual output capability by 390,000 mt.
Netherlands-based Stamicarbon, part of the Italian Maire Tecnimont Group, is the basic design and technology licensor for the projects, which will include installing a new urea synthesis facility, Acron said. The project will also reduce direct CO2 emissions by 270,000 mt/y, according to the group.
It put the total investment for the upgrades of the four urea units at $92 million.
Acron currently is completing its Urea-6+ project at the site, which will increase the unit’s capacity to 730,000 mt/y (April 23, p. 30).
Once all these upgrades are complete, the group’s Veliky Novgorod site will be able to produce over 2.3 million mt/y of urea, making Acron the largest urea producer in Europe, the group said.
Acron in May last year added urea granular capability to its production portfolio, commissioning a new 700,000 mt/y urea granulation unit at the Veliky Novgorod site (GM May 22, 2020). Hitherto, Acron had only produced urea that was prilled or rotoform.
Acron Group Urea Production Capacity
at Veliky Novgorod
| Original design capacity (mt/y) | Current design capacity (mt/y) | Future design capacity under current projects | Scheduled completion | |
| Urea units 1-4 | 360,000 (1969-1972) | 730,000 | 1,120,000 | 2024 |
| Urea-5 | 350,000 (2012) | 515,000 | 515,000 | |
| Urea-6 | 210,000 (end-2018) | 210,000 | 730,000 | 3Q 2021 |
| All six units | 1,455,000 | 2,365,000 |
The group produces ammonia at its Dorogubuzh subsidiary in Russia’s Smolensk region, but the Veliky Novgorod site is its only urea producing site.