Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corp.’s (BCIC) Ghorashal-Polash Urea Fertilizer Project (GPUFP), which is set to be the country’s largest and first-ever “green” fertilizer plant, is nearing completion.
More than 90% of the construction work already is completed and the project can be finished more than two months ahead of schedule, by December 2023, according to a report by China’s Xinhua news agency, citing GPUFP project director Mohammad Rajiour Rahman Mollick.
The plant, located in the Narsingdi district in central Bangladesh, some 51 m northeast of the capital of Dhaka, will have an estimated daily production capacity of 2,800 mt/d of urea and 1,600 mt/d of ammonia, and will use natural gas feedstock.
State-run BCIC first announced the project in October 2018, and originally was targeting the plant to be operational by 2022 (GM Dec. 13, 2019; Oct. 19, 2018). The new facility is replacing two of BCIC’s oldest plants, Urea Fertilizer Factory Ltd. and Polash Urea Fertilizer Ltd.
A consortium of Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. (MHI) and China National Chemical Engineering Seventh Construction Co Ltd. (CC7) is the EPC contractor for GPUFP. The project cost is put at $1.2 billion.
Mollick, as cited by the report, said the plant will help Bangladesh meet the growing demand for fertilizer in its efforts to ensure food security. He put the country’s current fertilizer demand at around 2.5 million mt/y, while the new plant, once fully operational, will be able to provide about 1 million mt of fertilizer to Bangladesh’s farmers every year, he said.
At the same time, the GPUFP plant will become the first-ever “green” fertilizer plant in Bangladesh. According to Mollick, all the CO2 will be captured from the primary reformer flue gas while other liquid effluent will be treated prior to discharge outside the plant site.
By using the captured CO2, the production of urea will be increased by about 10%, according to the project director.