Linde Engineering, an arm of industrial gases major Linde plc, has inked a contract for the engineering and procurement of an air separation unit (ASU) and a nitrogen wash unit (NWU) for Perth-based Perdaman Chemicals and Fertilisers Pty Ltd.’s ammonia and 2.3 million mt/y granular urea project under construction in Western Australia, some 20 kilometers north of Karratha on the Burrup Peninsula
The single-train ASU will have a capacity of 63,000 normal cubic meters per hour (Nm3/h) of gaseous oxygen, Linde Engineering reported on March 7. The single-train NWU will have a capacity of 392,000 Nm3/h syngas to supply the downstream ammonia plant being built at the project. The NWU will be the world’s largest single train NWU, according to Linde.
Linde had previously provided solutions and input for the feasibility and front-end engineering design (FEED) studies for the project. Italy’s Saipem SpA and Western Australia’s Clough, a wholly-owned subsidiary of WeBuild Group, are the lead Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contractors for the planned urea plant.
The
Karratha plant will utilize natural gas feedstock from Woodside Energy’s
Scarborough Gas project under a 20-year agreement to supply 130 terajoules of
gas per day once the plant is commissioned. Perdaman officially broke ground last
April (GM April 28, 2023), shortly after
achieving financial close for the A$6 billion project (GM April 21, 2023).
Commissioning of the new urea production facility is currently expected by
mid-2027. Perdaman has a 20-year offtake agreement for the entire output of the
Karratha plant with Incitec Pivot Ltd. The plant will incorporate Topsøe’s
SynCOR ammonia technology and Saipem’s proprietary Snamprogetti urea technology.