Content

Raw material
Physical property
Chemical reaction
Flow sheet
Major engineering problem
Uses
 Raw material of Urea
Ammonia (NH3)
Carbon dioxide(CO2)

Physical property of ammonia

 It is a colorless gas.
 It can be easily liquefied at room temperature by
applying a pressure of about 8-10 atmosphere
(atm).
 Physical property of carbon dioxide
Formula CO2

Molecular weight (gm\gmol) 44.01

Boiling point (k) 194.5

Melting point (k) 216.6

odor odorless

viscosity 0.07 cp at 194.5k

Specific gravity 1.555

 Physical properties
• Structural formula=

• Molecular formula = CH4N2O or NH2-CO- NH2

Molar mass (Mol Wt. )
60.06 g mol−1

Appearance White solid

Density 1.32 g/cm3

Melting point 133–135 °C

Solubility in water 107.9 g/100 ml (20 °C)

167 g/100ml (40 °C)
Urea Production Process from Ammonia and
Carbon-dioxide
 Urea is manufactured by reacting ammonia and
carbon dioxide in autoclave to form ammonium
carbamate.
 The operating temperature is 1350C and 35 atm
pressure.
 Urea production consists of main two reactions.
1. Formation of ammonium carbamate.
2. Dehydration of ammonium carbamate to produce
molten urea.
 Chemical reaction

1) CO2 + 2NH3 NH2COONH4

∆H= -37.4 Kcal/gm mol
2) NH2COONH4 NH2CONH2 + H2O
∆H= + 6.3 Kcal/gm mol

 Undesirable side reaction taking place is:

3) 2NH2CONH2 NH2CONHCONH2 + NH3
(Biuret)
Flow sheet
 Process description
1. Ammonia pumping : Liquid ammonia is pumped from
the multistage pump which maintain the reaction pressure
in the vertical stainless steel vessel.

2. Carbon dioxide compression : ammonia plant directly

boost the carbon dioxide from the compression section as
it readily form at the CO2section of ammonia production
plant.

3. Urea synthesis tower: It is lined with film of oxides to

protect form corrosion. Catalyst bed is placed in the inner
side of the autoclave structure and 180- 200 atm pressure
at temperature about 180-200 deg centigrade is
maintained. Plug flow operation take places and molten
urea is removed from the top of the tower.
 Process description
4. Distillation tower and Flash drum: This high
pressure slurry is flashed to 1 atm pressure and distilled to
remove excess ammonia and decomposed ammonia
carbamated salts are removed and recycled.
5. Vacuum Evaporator: The solution is fed to vacuum
evaporator for concentrating the slurry.
6. Prilling Tower: It is dryer where the molten slurry is passed
from top of the tower into a bucket which rotates and
sprinkles the slurry and air is passed from the bottom. All the
moisture is removed as the urea form into granules during it
journey to the bottom of the tower. This granules are sent by
conveyor to the bagging section.
MAJOR ENGINEERING PROBLEMS
1) Carbamate decomposition and recycle:
 There are many processes that can be used for the
manufacture of urea. Main difference in competing
processes is in the recycle design.
 Since, conversion is only 40-50 % per pass, the
unreacted off gases must be recirculated or used
economically elsewhere.
 Recompression of off gases is virtually impossible
because of corrosion and formation of solid
carbamate in compressors.
MAJOR ENGINEERING PROBLEMS

2) Production of granular urea:

 Biuret formation is another problem. Vacuum
evaporation of urea from 80% to about 99%,
spraying to air cool and solidification must be done
just above the melting point of urea and with a
minimum residence time in the range of several
seconds.
3) Heat dissipation in the autoclave:
 The exothermic heat of reaction can be removed by
coils or wall cooling.
MAJOR ENGINEERING PROBLEMS
4) Corrosion:
This has been the major reason why the NH3-
CO2 process was slow to develop.
Minimum pressure and temperature conditions
with excess NH3 are desirable to reduce the
severe corrosion rates.
 Under these conditions, stainless steel can be
used in the autoclave.
 Uses
 Agriculture
 More than 90% of world production of urea is mostly
use for as a nitrogen-release fertilizer. Urea has the
highest nitrogen content of all solid nitrogenous
fertilizers in common use. Therefore, it has the lowest
transportation costs .
 The most common impurity of synthetic urea is biuret
which impairs plant growth.
Commercial uses
 An ingredient in some skin cream , moisturizers, hair
conditioners.

Explosive
 Urea can be used to make urea nitrate, a high
explosive that is used industrially and as part of
some improvised explosive devices.