ThyssenKrupp Uhde has announced that it has been selected to design and supply a liquid fertilizer plant for Orascom Construction Industries. OCI has commissioned the complex for its subsidiary, Iowa Fertilizer Company.
The contract is for the engineering and procurement for the construction of one of the world’s largest single-train liquid fertilizer plants, which will be built in the U.S.
The German plant construction company ThyssenKrupp Uhde was awarded the contract, which will be built near Wever, Iowa, through its U.S. business partner Uhde Corporation of America. The liquid fertilizer, urea ammonium nitrate (UAN), is produced from ammonia and carbon dioxide with urea solution, nitric acid and ammonium nitrate being produced as intermediates.
This will be the first new sizeable fertilizer complex to be built in the U.S. in almost 25 years.
ThyssenKrupp Uhde will supply the required process equipment and machinery as well as develop the engineering for six of the seven process plants. As an additional product the plant will produce a high purity urea solution (also called Diesel Exhaust Fluid, DEF), which will be used to improve the environmental performance of diesel engines by reducing the nitrogen oxides in the exhaust.
“The Iowa fertilizer plant is the next chapter in our success story with OCI, which, after Egypt and Algeria, has now taken us to the United States,” said Chairman of the Management Board of ThyssenKrupp Uhde, Dr. Michael Thiemann. “Our outstanding technological expertise and the excellent performance of our reference plants contributed to this success against international competition.”
The OCI Construction Group can look back on a long-standing relationship and successful track record of working with ThyssenKrupp Uhde on various projects. These include several nitrogen fertilizer plants in Egypt and Algeria with a combined value of more than USD 2 billion.
“We have worked well with ThyssenKrupp Uhde on several projects and believe our performance on this project, with an overall investment of USD 1.4 billion, will be a landmark reference for us to grow our business in North America,” said OCI Construction Group Chief Operating Officer, Osama Bishai.