Cronus Fertilizers, Chicago, said Feb. 23 that it has executed an Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract with Tecnimont – Illinois, a subsidiary of Tecnimont SpA, for the Cronus Fertilizers plant in Tuscola, Ill. The lump sum turnkey (LSTK) EPC contract is valued at approximately $1.5 billion and is pursuant to the Memorandum of Understanding signed by Cronus and Tecnimont SpA (Italy) in November 2014.
Tecnimont SpA is the main subsidiary of Maire Tecnimont SpA.
Construction is expected to begin in the summer of 2015 following financial closing and will be completed in approximately three years.
Cronus Fertilizers will have the capacity to produce 2,200 mt/d of ammonia using KBR’s Technology and 3,850 mt/d of granular urea using technology developed by Stamicarbon, Maire Tecnimont Group’s licensing and IP center. The Cronus plant will also produce diesel exhaust fluid.
Cronus Fertilizers is a project of Cronus Chemicals LLC.
“We are delighted to have reached this important milestone; we look forward to working with Maire Tecnimont to create a state-of-the-art facility that will provide US farmers with locally produced nitrogen fertilizers,” said Erzin Atac, CEO of Cronus Chemicals.
“We are very pleased to have successfully completed this further achievement with our partner Cronus following the signature of the MOU in November 2014,” said Pierroberto Folgiero, Maire Tecnimont CEO. “The collaboration with them is perfectly in line with the challenging path we expected to follow.”