ThyssenKrupp Uhde GmbH contractors have supplied and commissioned a plant for the production of 3,500 metric tons per day of urea solution in Sluiskil, The Netherlands, for Yara, Oslo, Norway, the world’s biggest producer of urea. The plant took three years to build. Yara has invested € 400 million in its construction. The technology was licensed by Stamicarbon B.V., Sittard, The Netherlands. Uhde was responsible for the engineering, supply of all equipment and the construction of the plant on a fixed-price, turnkey basis.

Some of the urea produced will not be used as fertilizer but as an aqueous urea solution to treat diesel exhaust fumes. This technology, which is known as AdBlue, reduces NOx emissions. Urea solution is now being sold at service stations, for example, and is marketed by Yara under the name of Air1. It enables the latest models of commercial vehicles to achieve the maximum permissible limit values specified in Eurocode 5 and in a few years time Eurocode 6. The required feedstocks are ammonia and carbon dioxide, which are both available at the site in Sluiskil.

• ThyssenKrupp Uhde GmbH, Dortmund, Germany