Failure Mechanisms and Material Degradations at High Temperatures in Ammonia Plants

The long history of ammonia production at BASF started with the development of the process in the early 20th century by Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch. In September 1913 in Ludwigshafen, Germany the first plant went into service with a capacity of 30 t (66 000 lbs) ammonia per day. Today BASF operates two plants in Ludwigshafen (Ammonia 3: conventional steam reforming plant, 1971, Ammonia 4: Braun purifier
plant, 1982) and one plant in Antwerp/Belgium (Uhde design, 1990). From the early days until now the limitation of material degradation processes at high temperatures to a tolerable scale was always a demanding task for the maintenance and operating staff in the plants to assure a safe and economic ammonia production. Read More..by downloading : click the blue rectangle