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Technical, Economic and Environmental Study and Evaluation of Urea and Ammonia Production Process

Heidary Doost, Mahdi | 2022

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  1. Type of Document: M.Sc. Thesis
  2. Language: Farsi
  3. Document No: 56059 (06)
  4. University: Sharif University of Technology
  5. Department: Chemical and Petroleum Engineering
  6. Advisor(s): Farhadi, Fatollah; Vafa, Ehsan
  7. Abstract:
  8. process design and decision-making about it are challenging activities that involve optimizing conflicting goals such as cost, technical feasibility, and environmental impacts. These conflicting goals can be analyzed by considering the complete life cycle of a process or product in the initial design and decision-making. Life cycle analysis follows the environmental effects throughout the life cycle of a product, including extraction, transportation, production, consumption, and disposal. Life cycle assessment includes four fundamental stages: goal and scope definition, inventory analysis, life cycle impact assessment, and interpretation of results. The aim of this project is to investigate and compare the environmental impacts of the urea-ammonia production process and evaluate the life cycle of the process to reduce costs and environmental impacts. Urea has important applications as fertilizer and food supplement, as well as a raw material for plastic and pharmaceutical production. More than 90% of global urea production is considered for use as nitrogen-releasing fertilizer. An important gap in recent research that has been less focused on, is the use of different energy sources such as natural gas and diesel fuel to supply the required energy for the process and compare these two conditions. Also, in previous studies, economic and environmental analyses were not consistent with the economic conditions of Iran. In this study, first, the production unit with a capacity equal to Pardis Petrochemical Company (2,500,000 tons per year) was simulated using HYSIS software, and after estimating the costs, the profitability analysis was performed using indicators such as payback period and net present value. Then, the environmental impacts were evaluated in two different scenarios for this unit. In the first scenario, the required fuel for the unit is supplied from natural gas, and its electricity from a natural gas-fired power plant, while in the second scenario The required fuel for the unit and its required electricity are obtained from a diesel fuel power plant. Life cycle assessment was performed using OpenLCA software and eco-Indicator99 method, and the final results of the life cycle assessment indicate that the first scenario is better in terms of the amount of output pollutants and their effects on human health. Although choosing the first scenario reduces the unit's annual cash flow by 16%, it prevents the entry of 0.49 tons of pollutants into the atmosphere annually
  9. Keywords:
  10. Life Cycle Assessment ; Environmental Pollutant ; Environmental Impact ; Urea-Ammonia Production Process ; OpenLCA Software ; Economic and Technical Study ; Process Design for Environment

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