02-02-2025

thyssenkrupp Uhde to provide carbon capture and green ammonia solutions to MOPCO

thyssenkrupp Uhde has been selected by MOPCO – Misr Fertilizers Production Company (Egypt) – to supply advanced technology for three existing ammonia and urea plants in Damietta, Egypt, to enhance the sustainability of their production. Using an innovative carbon capture and usage (CCU) solution from thyssenkrupp Uhde, the aim is to remove up to 145,000 t/year of CO2 from the flue gas of the existing ammonia production and use them in the urea production. At the same time, three state-of-the-art uhde® ammonia converter cartridges will be installed in the existing converters to increase ammonia production capacity while lowering natural gas consumption in the synthesis loop by around 10%. To bring down CO2 emissions even further, additional green hydrogen feedstock will be sourced from new water electrolysis units powered by renewable energy. MOPCO plans to produce up to 150,000 tons per year of green ammonia.

Ahmed Mahmoud El-Sayed, Chairman of the Board and Managing Director of MOPCO: “This collaboration with thyssenkrupp Uhde marks a significant step towards our sustainability strategic goals. Their world-leading technologies will not only increase our production capacity but also deliver proof for our commitment to provide more climate-friendly urea and produce green ammonia, where MOPCO will become one of the leaders to produce such products in MENA.”

Nadja Håkansson, CEO of thyssenkrupp Uhde: “We are proud to enable our longstanding partner MOPCO to expand their business towards a greener production through our innovative carbon capture and low-emission ammonia solutions.”

The ammonia and urea plants (three plants each) were originally built by thyssenkrupp Uhde between 2006 and 2015, each plant having a capacity of approximately 1,200 metric tons per day (mtpd) of ammonia and 2,000 mtpd of urea respectively. Now, to increase ammonia production capacity, three new uhde® ammonia converter cartridges will be inserted. The new cartridges, based on the latest design principles like removable beds with axial-radial flow design, will boost production by 150 mtpd per plant in order to allow MOPCO to produce ammonia. This is achieved through a significant increase of effective catalyst volumes and utilizing Johnson Matthey’s high-performance catalyst KATALCOTM 74-1 as part of the solution.

As the cartridges are designed for installation in existing pressure shells, hardware adjustments are kept at a minimum and the revamp can be carried out with minimized downtimes. thyssenkrupp Uhde will provide comprehensive services throughout the installation and start-up phases, including the tie-in of the planned green hydrogen supply.