Stamicarbon, the innovation and license company of Maire Tecnimont Group, will supply a 2000 mtpd urea granulation plant using Stamicarbon technology and proprietary equipment for JSC Acron*, one of Russia’s major fertilizer producers, further consolidating its granulation business track record. This achievement strengthens a mutually fruitful relation with a leading fertilizer player, after Acron’s first granulation plant project awarded to Stamicarbon in 2018 and commissioned in 2020. 

Plant design

The new granulation plant will be built based on the same design as Acron’s first granulation plant, successfully commissioned in 2020 despite the challenges presented by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. “The startup of the unit went quickly and without any technical problems,” said Vladimir Trunov, Deputy Director General for organization and support of projects at Acron Engineering Research and Design Center. “The granulation unit promptly reached guaranteed parameters.”

“Since the start of its operation in the summer of 2020, the granulation unit has demonstrated excellent performance, both in terms of process reliability and equipment – the granulator,” said Sergey Abramov, Licensing Manager at Stamicarbon. “Acron appreciated our technology and as a result chose Stamicarbon for the second unit of the same design and capacity.” 

This new milestone in the relationship with JSC Acron serves as proof of reliability of Stamicarbon technology and as another outstanding reference in Russia and globally. 

Technological advantage

The second plant will use Stamicarbon’s latest granulation technology, which offers both investment and operating cost savings, whilst meeting environmental requirements. The core of this granulation design is the Stamicarbon proprietary granulator.

The success of this technology is due to the film spraying nozzles, which help to build up the granules layer by layer, resulting in a better-quality end-product. Compared to other fluidized bed granulation processes, considerable OPEX savings are achieved due to a reduced formaldehyde content in the final product and low dust formation. This results in an average operation time of three months, without any interruption for cleaning. These benefits have gained interest in the market, leading to a market share in granulation of around 60% in the last five years.

*This award was already included in Maire Tecnimont Group’s press release issued on July 21st, 2021, announcing several new awards in its core business.