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FAI-H.O., New Delhi Downtime in Ammonia and Urea Plants

24.7.2006 Page 1 of 12

Analysis of Downtime in Ammonia and Urea Plants

Dr. S. Nand & Manish Goswami

The Fertiliser Association of India, New Delhi

[email protected]

Abstract

A survey of downtime in Indian ammonia and urea plants was carried out for

the three year period of 2002-05. The analysis shows that there is a significant

improvement in on-stream efficiency of ammonia and urea plants due to

reduction in downtime due to various reasons. For example, the downtime

due to forced shut down in ammonia plants came down from 30.2 days perplant per year (DDPY) in 1999-2002 to 14.8 DDPY during the period 2002-

05. Downtime due to mechanical failure in ammonia plants was reduced to

less than half (5.9 DDPY) during the current survey compared to the previous

survey (14.7 DDPY). There is also improvement in the duration of planned

shut down from 22.5 DDPY during 1999-02 to 19.1 DDPY for the 2002-05

period. These improvements are reflected in high on-stream days of 330 for

the current survey compared to 311 during 1999-02. The analysis has also

identified the areas where more attention is required to improve the on-stream

efficiency.

1.0 IntroductionThe efficiency in operation of ammonia and urea plants is determined by

various factors like plant reliability, type of feedstock, availability of the utilities,

labour relations, market conditions, etc. The most important of these factors is the

reliability of the plant and machinery. Maintenance and inspection are the two

important functions which can ensure a high reliability and availability of the

continuous process plants. The high on-stream factor and operating efficiency can

only be achieved with the systematic inspection programme leading to predictive

maintenance programme. It is needless to mention that high plant reliability also

helps in ensuring environmentally safe operations.


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Indian ammonia and urea industry grew manifold in the 3 decades of 1970s,

80s and 90s. The installed capacity of ammonia and urea increased from about 1.0

MMT ammonia and 1.6 MMT urea in 1970-71 to 13.4 MMT and 20.5 MMT

respectively in 2004-05 making it one of the largest in the world. In the initial phase

of the development of the industry, the plant owners had to struggle for achieving a

reasonable operating levels due to use of unproven equipments and moving machines.

The average capacity utilization of ammonia plants remained lower than 70% in the

decade of 1970s. However, the decade of 1980s witnessed construction of large

single stream plants with proven technology and equipments and using natural gas as

feedstock. These developments along with revamp/retrofit of old plants, and better

operation and maintenance practices helped to increase the capacity utilization to

almost 100% in the 1990s. Natural gas emerged as the prominent feedstock for

production of ammonia and urea accounting for about 50% of the installed capacity.

However, naphtha and fuel oil continue to remain significant in contributing more

than 40% to the urea production in the country.

The capacity utilization and energy efficiency of the plants are badly affected

by unscheduled shutdown for whatever reason. One of the major causes of

unscheduled shutdown could be the breakdown of plant and machinery. Hence, the

attention has to be paid to a high degree of reliability of equipments specially when

plants are getting old. This again brings into the sharp focus, the areas of inspection

and maintenance. The Fertiliser Association of India has been monitoring the

downtime and its causes in ammonia and urea plants in India for more than 30 years.

The present paper reports the results and the analysis of the data collected for

downtime and its causes for the period April 2002 to March 2005.


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Downtime data for the 3 year period was available from 29 ammonia and 28

urea plants. These plants accounted for a total of 33.9 million MT ammonia and 54.9

million MT of urea production during the 3 year period which is 85.6% and 87.8% of

the total production respectively. The survey includes a mix of plants with respect to

vintage, size and feedstock. The vintage of the plants varied from 6 years to 38 years.

The size of the plants varied from less than 600 MTPD to 1500 MTPD for ammonia

and less than 600 MTPD to 1800 MTPD for single stream urea plants.

2.0 Method of AnalysisThe detailed data obtained from these plants under various classifications was

converted to the downtime in days per plant per year (DDPY).

DDPY = Number of days of downtime/ (Number of plants/number of years).

The trends in downtime due to various causes over the previous years

are also presented.

3.0 Ammonia Plants3.1 Causes for Loss of Production

Table 1 shows the reasons for loss of production of ammonia and urea during

the survey period. Of the total loss of production of 2.67 MMT of ammonia, 37.8%

of loss was due to equipment problem. Shortage of inputs like natural gas, naphtha,

fuel oil and coal accounted for 22.5% of loss of ammonia production. Miscellaneous

factors included high inventory levels of products etc. Similar trends were observed

in the causes for loss of production of urea during the survey period i.e. 2002-05.

3.2 Duration of Turnaround

Average duration of planned turnaround (maintenance) shutdown of 29

ammonia plants was 19.1 days per plant per year (DDPY) compared to 22.5 DDPY

during 1999-02 and 18.4 DDPY during 1996-99. Due to slack in consumption of urea

and built up of production capacity, GOI put a cap on allocation of urea to various


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3.5 Downtime due to Mechanical FailuresSection wise downtime data due to mechanical failures for 25 plants based on

reforming process and 4 plants based on gasification process are shown in Table 3 &

Table 4 respectively. Reforming plants accumulated a total downtime of 433 days.

Primary reformer, synthesis gas compressor and air compressor were the major

contributors to the downtime. RCF-Trombay V, IFFCO-Phulpur I and II encountered

the problem in primary reformer. BVFCL-Namrup III, IFFCO-Kalol, RCF-Trombay

V and IFFCO-Phulpur II faced problems in syngas compressor. KSFL-Shahjahanpur

and FACT-Alwaye had problems in the air compressor. Other sections like secondary

reformer and purification were also responsible for significant downtime. BVFCL-

Namrup III reported a downtime of 10 days in refrigeration compressor during the

period. Amongst other equipments, auxiliary boiler, piping and valves contributed a

significant downtime of more than 25 days.

In gasification plants, high downtime was contributed by synthesis compressor

(38.9%) followed by air separation unit (20.7%) and purification (12.0%). It also

reported a downtime of 8 days due to problems in exchangers of air separation unit.

At GNFC syngas compressor caused a downtime of 17 days during the 3-year period

under review.

4.0 Downtime in Urea PlantsDowntime data of 28 urea plants was analyzed for the period of 2002-05. Production

of urea being dependent on availability of ammonia and carbon dioxide from

ammonia plant, the trend in downtime for urea plants are generally similar to

ammonia plants. The downtime for planned turnaround shows that duration of

turnaround increased from 17.7 DDPY in 1996-99 to 25.2 DDPY in 1999-2002 and

came down to 21.4 DDPY for the present survey period of 2002-05. The explanation

given for similar trend in case of ammonia plants is equally applicable here. The


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number of shutdown per plant per year (SPY) have come down over the years, but

still remains high at 11.4.

The average downtime (total) in urea plants has come down to 31.0 DDPY

compared to 38.3 DDPY during 1999-02 and 39.8 DDPY in 1996-99 (Table 5).

However, as in the case of ammonia plants, the largest share in downtime of urea

plants was accounted for by miscellaneous reasons. The reasons included cap on

production of urea due to limited allocation under ECA, shortage of feedstock,

utilities, water scarcity and all other reasons which affected production of ammonia.

It is heartening to note that downtime due to mechanical failures has

maintained downward trend for the last several years, registering a figure of 5.9

DDPY (Table 5) during the latest 3 years period. However, there is a scope for

further improvement in this area. The details of downtime of major equipment items

in urea plants are given in Table 6. Stripper, reactor, exchangers, piping and valves

remained the major items contributing to closure of plants. RCF-Thal, NFCL-

Kakinada I, CFCL-Gadepan II, IFFCO-Phulpur I faced the problem in stripper.

Reactor problems accounted for significant downtime at NFCL-Kakinada I, ZIL-Goa

and KRIBHCO-Hazira. RCF-Thal and GNFC-Bharuch reported long downtime due

to problems in heat exchangers. BVFCL-Namrup III accounted for downtime of 127

days of the total downtime of 477 days in all the urea plants during the period. In

fact, 4 urea units accounted for more than half of the total downtime in all urea plants.

5.0 On-stream EfficiencyThe on-stream days of a plant can be calculated by subtracting the period of

shutdown whether forced or planned. For ammonia plants, average on-stream days of

330 days for the survey period are higher than 311 days for the previous survey period

of 1999-02. Similarly, average on-stream days of urea plant at 310 days are higher

than 301 days for the period of previous survey. The following three efficiency


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factors namely; operating factor, service factor and reliability factor were calculated

to evaluate the performance of the plants.

a) Plant Operability factor indicates the actual operation of the plant during the

year.

Operating Factor = 365 - total downtime in days X 100

365

b) Plant Availability or service factor signifies the actual availability of the plant

for

operation in absence of downtime due to reasons other than internal to the

plant.

Service Factor = 365 total downtime in days X 100

365 business related downtime

c) Plant Reliability factor is an indicator of the reliable operation of a plant

Reliability Factor = 365 - total downtime in days X 100

365 business related downtime & duration of

planned turnaround in days

Here, the business relating downtime is the forced downtime due to external

factors such as shortage of feedstock, power and water problems, labour problems,

etc. The objective of calculating the above factors is to show the reliability of plants

from technical point of view. These efficiency factors are summarized in Table 7.

The table shows that the operation of ammonia plant took place 90% of the time while

the plants were available for service 92% with 97% reliability during 2002-05 period.

The figure 1 shows the operating factor of ammonia plants divided into 4

qualities. It is obvious there is need to improve the operating factor of the quartile

with operating factor of 83.9 % by way of reduction in duration of turnaround and

forced downtime due to equipment problems.


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6.0 ConclusionPerformance of ammonia and urea plants has improved significantly during

2002-05 period which is reflected in achievement of average on-stream days of 330

for all ammonia plants. High speed rotating machines like syngas compressor and air

compressor, and heat exchangers/waste heat boilers need attention to further improve

their operational reliability. A few fertiliser units continue to have significant

downtime due to other static equipments like urea reactor and reformer. These units

have to strive hard to improve reliability of critical equipment in order to achieve high

on-stream efficiency.


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Table 1: Major Reasons for Loss of Production in Ammonia and Urea Plants for

2002-05

Reasons NH3

(000 MT)

% Urea

(000 MT)

%

1. Equipment Breakdown

2. Power Problems

3. Shortage of Raw Materials

4. Labour Problems

5. Water Problems

6. Miscellaneous

Total Loss

1011

61

602

0.8

47

950

2672

37.8

2.3

22.5

0.03

1.8

35.5

100.0

1450

145

1322

0.0

63

1094

4075

35.6

3.6

32.4

0.0

1.5

26.8

100.0

Table 2: Downtime in Ammonia Plants for Various Survey Periods(All the Plants)

(DDPY = Downtime in Days/Plant/Year)

Reasons 1996-99

(DDPY)

1999-2002

(DDPY)

2002-05

(DDPY)

1. Mechanical

2. Electrical

3. Instrumentation

4. Process5. Miscellaneous

Total

14.7

0.6

1.1

1.610.3

28.3

14.7

0.7

1.0

1.911.9

30.2

5.9

0.8

1.4

0.66.1

14.8

Table 3: Downtime Due to Mechanical Failures in Ammonia Plants for

2002-2005

(Based on Reforming Process)

Major Sections

(25 plants)

Downtime

(Days)

Downtime

%1. Pre-treatment Section

2. Pre-reformer

3. Primary reformer

4. Secondary reformer

5. Purification

6. Synloop & Refrigeration

7. Syngas Compressor

8. Other Compressors & Turbines

9.Miscellaneous Major Equipments

Total

3.0

15.8

72.4

48.4

45.3

21.2

68.0

87.0

71.7

432.8

0.7

3.7

16.7

11.2

10.5

4.9

15.7

20.1

16.6

100.0


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Table 4 : Downtime Due to Mechanical Failures in Ammonia Plants for 2002-05

(Based on Gasification Process)

Major Sections

(4 Plants)

Downtime

(Days)

Downtime

%

1. Gasifier

2. Air Separation Unit

3. Purification

4. Synloop & Refrigeration

5. Syngas Compressor

6. Other Compressors & Turbines

7. Miscellaneous Major Equipments

Total

1.0

12.0

7.0

2.0

23.0

2.0

12.0

59.0

1.7

20.4

12.0

3.4

38.9

23.4

20.3

100.0

Table 5: Downtime in Urea Plants for Various Survey Periods

(all the plants)

(DDPY = Downtime in Days/Plant/year)

Reasons 1996-99

(DDPY)

1999-2002

(DDPY)

2002-05

(DDPY)

1. Mechanical

2. Electrical

3. Instrumentation4. Process

5. Miscellaneous

Total

10.5

0.5

0.60.4

27.8

39.8

6.3

1.0

0.50.5

30.2

38.2

5.9

0.5

0.50.4

23.7

31.0


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Table 6: Details of Downtime due to Mechanical Failure in Urea Plants

(DDPY = Downtime Days/Plant/Year)

Equipment Items 1996-99 1999-2002 2002-05

1. Ammonia pre-heater

2. Ammonia Plants

3. Carbamate Pump

4. Slurry & Other Pumps

5. CO2 Compressor

6. Autoclave/Reactor

7. Let Down Valve

8. Heat Exchangers

9. Decomposer/Stripper

10. NH3/CO2 Recovery Column

11. Absorber/Recovery Vessels

12. Evaporator/Crystalliser

13. Centrifuge14. Steam Ejector/Vacuum Generator

15. Dryer/Cooler

16. Blower/Fan

17. Conveyer/Elevator

18. Prill Tower

19. Piping/Valves

20. Miscellaneous

Total

0.34

0.77

1.82

0.41

1.73

1.08

0.07

0.45

0.83

0.03

0.56

0.13

0.050.00

0.10

0.17

0.60

0.25

0.50

0.62

10.50

0.08

0.12

0.06

0.01

1.10

1.64

0.03

0.50

1.31

0.02

0.07

0.02

0.030.03

0.02

0.02

0.06

0.13

0.39

0.55

6.17

0.05

0.05

0.28

0.00

0.39

0.58

0.00

0.51

1.44

0.02

0.21

0.06

0.000.06

0.08

0.04

0.02

0.19

0.43

1.48

5.89

Table 7 : Operating Service & Reliability Factors for Ammonia and Urea Plants

2002-05

Operating Factor

%

Service Factor

%

Reliability Factor

%

Ammonia

Urea

90.3

85.0

91.9

91.7

97.1

97.9


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94.5

92.7

90.6

83.9

90.3

78

80

82

84

86

88

90

92

94

96

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 overall

Quartiles

%

Figure 1: Quartiles for Operating Factors of Ammonia Plants during 2002-05

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