PCI Nitrogen reported on Aug. 15 that it is moving up the 2019 turnaround at its Pasadena, Texas, production facility due to an unscheduled maintenance event. The turnaround is now taking place in August and will last approximately 17 days.
The PCI Pasadena facility is the largest producer of synthetic granular ammonium sulfate in North America, and also produces liquid ammonium thiosulfate and sulfuric acid. Annual production volumes are estimated at more than 500,000 tons of ammonium sulfate, 100,000 tons of ammonium thiosulfate, and 640,000 tons of sulfuric acid, according to Green Markets Director of Research Neil Fleishman. All products are marketed exclusively by Interoceanic Corp. (IOC).
No other details about the unscheduled maintenance were available. The facility sustained damage in September 2017 due to flooding from Hurricane Harvey (GM Sept. 8, 2017), which disrupted operations for several weeks. PCI reported in May 2017 (GM May 12, 2017) that it planned to increase granular ammonium sulfate capacity at the plant.