The Ma’aden Wa’ad Al Shamal Phosphate Company (MWSPC), which is a joint venture between Ma’aden, SABIC and US company Mosaic, has signed a service agreement for a period of three years with DuPont Clean Technologies (DuPont) for its sulfuric acid plant in Sirhan, in the Turaif region of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The service program will include activity testing of catalyst samples, evaluation of catalyst performance, plant optimization, troubleshooting and management of catalyst replacement. DuPont will also track performance and assess the overall health of the plant using pre-agreed metrics and will employ its proprietary portable MECS® PeGASyS™ gas chromatography system to assist MWSPC with troubleshooting and plant performance optimization.
The MWSPC operation manages a phosphate complex with mining, beneficiation, phosphoric acid and sulfuric acid operations with a total capacity of 16 million tons per year and a fertilizer facility with a capacity of 4.3 million tpy. According to the company’s senior management, “Ma’aden’s vision is to be among the leading players in the global phosphate trade. MWSPC is one of three mega projects that contribute to this goal and as such we need to accomplish planned turnarounds swiftly, as planned and with optimal performance gains. That is why we decided to call on DuPont as an external expert in this field to assist us.”
“Through years of acid plant ownership and operating experience, DuPont has achieved operational and reliability excellence that is considered best in class by the industry,” Thierry Marin, Managing Director, DuPont Clean Technologies EMEA said. “We are delighted to put this know-how at the service of MWSPC to help the company to calibrate and improve plant performance at the same time as achieving planned turnarounds on time and on budget.” DuPont will be employing its proprietary portable PeGASyS™ gas chromatography system to analyze the SO2 and O2 converter gas streams at the MWSPC site to provide a solid basis for the planning of turnarounds. The system is not only suitable for gas analysis, but also can be used to detect possible leaks in gas-to-gas heat exchangers, identify SO2 gas bypassing and measure overall plant conversion in order to optimize plant operation, reduce SO2 emissions, increase production and improve converter performance.
