An ammonia synthesis plant comprising: a feed pretreating section operable to pretreat a feed stream; a syngas generation section operable to reform the feed stream to produce a reformer product stream; a shift conversion section operable to subject the reformer product stream to the water gas shift reaction, to produce a shifted gas stream comprising more hydrogen than the reformer gas stream; a purification section operable to remove at least one component from the shifted gas stream, and provide an ammonia synthesis feed stream; and/or an ammonia synthesis section operable to produce ammonia from the ammonia synthesis feed stream, wherein the ammonia synthesis plant is configured such that, relative to a conventional ammonia synthesis plant, more of the energy required by the ammonia synthesis plant or one or more sections thereof is provided by a non-carbon based energy source, a renewable energy source, and/or electricity.

A chemical reactor that combines a pressure vessel, heat exchanger, heater, and catalyst holder into a single device is disclosed. The chemical reactor described herein reduces the cost of the reactor and reduces its parasitic heat losses. The disclosed chemical reactor is suitable for use in ammonia (NH.sub.3) synthesis.

Process for the synthesis of ammonia comprising the steps of reforming of a hydrocarbon feedstock into a raw product gas, purification of said raw product gas obtaining a make-up synthesis gas, conversion of said synthesis gas into ammonia; said purification includes shift conversion of carbon monoxide into carbon dioxide and the reforming process requires a heat input which is at least partially recovered from at least one of said step of shift conversion, which is carried out with a peak temperature of at least 450° C., and said step of conversion into ammonia.

A synthesis device may include a pressure vessel with an inlet and an outlet for fluid, a catalyst bed that is disposed within the pressure vessel, a plate heat exchanger that is disposed in a flow path of fluid between the inlet of the pressure vessel and the catalyst bed such that fluid flowing into the catalyst bed is heated by fluid flowing out of the catalyst bed. The plate heat exchanger may be disposed outside a reactor volume occupied by the catalyst bed in the pressure vessel. The catalyst bed may be one of a plurality of catalyst beds disposed axially over one another in the pressure vessel.

Integrated process for the synthesis of ammonia and nitric acid, comprising a synthesis of nitric acid including the following steps: a) subjecting a stream of ammonia (10) to catalytic oxidation, obtaining a gaseous stream containing nitrogen oxides (13); b) subjecting said gaseous stream to a process of absorption of nitrogen oxides, providing nitric acid (16) and a tail gas (17) containing nitrogen and residual nitrogen oxides; c) subjecting at least a portion of said first tail gas (17) to a process of removal of nitrogen oxides, providing a nitrogen oxides-depleted tail gas (18), and comprising a synthesis of ammonia by catalytic conversion of a make-up gas (126, 226) comprising hydrogen and nitrogen in an ammonia synthesis loop, wherein at least a portion (18b, 18d, 21) of said second tail gas is used as nitrogen source for obtaining said make-up gas (126, 226).

A chemical plant and operating method therefor; the chemical plant comprises a steam turbine having a shaft, a first pressure turbine stage and a second pressure turbine stage, each being arranged on the shaft and being connected in series in terms of the steam process; steam for driving the steam turbine is obtained from a reactor plant, said reactor plant producing a hydrogen-containing substance from a carbon-containing energy carrier stream; the steam is heated in an overheating step before being supplied to the second pressure turbine stage; the steam turbine has a third pressure turbine stage which is arranged on the shaft and which is connected between the first pressure turbine stage and the second pressure turbine stage in terms of the steam process; and the steam passes through the overheating step after exiting the third pressure turbine stage.

A novel concept for a high energy and material efficient nitric acid production process and system is provided, wherein the nitric acid production process and system, particularly integrated with an ammonia production process and system, is configured to recover a high amount of energy out of the ammonia that it is consuming, particularly in the form of electricity, while maintaining a high nitric acid recovery in the conversion of ammonia to nitric acid. The energy recovery and electricity generation process comprises pressurizing a liquid gas, such as air, oxygen and/or N.sub.2, subsequently evaporating and heating the pressurized liquid gas, particularly using low grade waste heat generated in the production of nitric acid and/or ammonia, and subsequently expanding the evaporated pressurized liquid gas over a turbine. In particular, the generated electricity is at least partially used to power an electrolyzer to generate the hydrogen needed for the production of ammonia. The novel concepts set out in the present application are particularly useful in the production of nitric acid based on renewable energy sources.

The present invention concerns a process for increasing the productivity of equilibrium-restricted reactions and for increasing the productivity of a target compound. This process comprises the steps of (a) providing a reaction mixture comprising reactants; (b) subjecting the reaction mixture to the equilibrium reaction in a reactor or sequence of reactors, to obtain a reactor outlet mixture comprising the target compound and at least one of the reactants; (c) regenerating the loaded sorbent obtained in step (e), by flushing the loaded sorbent with the reactor outlet mixture originating from step (b), to obtain regenerated sorbent and an effluent comprising desorbed product; (d) separating the effluent originating from step (c) into a product stream and a reactant stream; and (e) a sorption step, wherein (i) the reactant stream originating from step (d); and/or (ii) an intermediate reaction mixture, which is obtained at the outlet of a reactor not being the last reactor of the reactor sequence, prior to being subjected to the subsequent reactor of the reactor sequence, is contacted with a sorbent selective for one or more of the products of the equilibrium reaction, to obtain a loaded sorbent and a depleted mixture.

A method and reactor for performing exothermic reactions with parallel operated catalyst modules arranged in stacked order within a pressure shell and adapted to axial flow of process gas through one or more catalyst layers and at least one catalyst layer cooled by an intrabed heat exchanger.

In one aspect, the disclosure relates to processes for production of ammonia and hydrogen under low reaction severity using as reactants nitrogen and at least one C1-C4 hydrocarbon, e.g., methane. The disclosed processes are carried out using a heterogeneous catalyst comprising a metal selected from Group 7, Group 8, Group 9, Group 10, Group 11, and combinations thereof; wherein the metal is present in an amount from about 0.1 wt % to about 20 wt % based on the total weight of the heterogeneous catalyst; and a metal oxide support. The processes can be carried out at about ambient pressure and at a heterogeneous catalyst temperature of from about 50° C. to about 250° C. This abstract is intended as a scanning tool for purposes of searching in the particular art and is not intended to be limiting of the present disclosure.