ERG announces the successful bid on behalf of its APC Process Engineering Ltd division to supply €1million of gas conditioning plant for the Qatar based QAFCO 5 fertiliser plant expansion project. This maintains the company’s 100% unbroken record in supplying gas conditioning plants at each of the previous four QAFCO expansion phases beginning with the initial QAFCO 1 project in 1973 up to QAFCO 4 in 2005. In a remarkable testament to their quality, each of the previous gas conditioning plants is still in operation, and QAFCO had no hesitation in specifying the ERG design as the benchmark for their latest production facility.

QAFCO (the Qatar Fertiliser Company) operate the world’s largest ammonia and urea production site at Mesaieed City, Qatar. The QAFCO 5 project is a $3.2 billion investment in additional capacity making it the largest and most expensive ammonia / urea facility construction project worldwide. The new capacity is scheduled to come on stream in 2011.

Each of the QAFCO plants uses high pressure natural gas from offshore sources as the principal raw material for ammonia and urea production. However the natural gas contains H2S which corrodes the pipework transmitting the gas onshore, and forms scale in the gas stream. This scale needs to be removed before any downstream processing can begin, making gas conditioning one of the critical steps in the entire process.

To accomplish the gas cleaning, ERG is supplying two specially designed venturi scrubbers to remove >99.5% of all scale and other particulates. In order to cope with high pressure and the aggressive environment the QAFCO 5 scrubbers will be constructed from 25mm thick stainless steel and each unit will be capable of conditioning 90,000Nm3/hr of gas.

James Scott-Bowden, Managing Director of ESG commented: “Few companies in the world have the depth of experience and specialist knowledge of APC Process Engineering Ltd to design industrial gas conditioning systems for operation in these environments. Since ERG acquired APC Process Engineering in early 2008 this expertise is now guaranteed for the long term. The award of this latest QAFCO project is proof of the continuity of that expertise.”

Representing the lead contractor for the QAFCO 5 project, Mr. XYZ, Snamprogetti project manager speaking about the project added: “ERG was the obvious choice as supplier for the gas conditioning system. What better reference could there be than to have supplied all previous units for the customer, and for them to all be in operation up to 26 years later?”