€1m QAFCO 5 contract awarded to ERG’s APC Process Engineering division

ERG’s APC Process Engineering division has been awarded a €1million contract to supply two gas conditioning plants for a major project in the Gulf State of Qatar. The equipment is destined for use on the fertiliser plant expansion project, QAFCO 5. This latest contract continues the company’s unbroken record in supplying gas conditioning plants to the QAFCO facility, which began with units for the QAFCO 1 project in 1973 and continued through each expansion phase to QAFCO 4 in 2005. ERG has been awarded this contract by the project’s lead contractor, the Italian based Saipem.

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 and the new capacity is scheduled to come on stream in 2011. 

Each of the QAFCO plants uses high pressure natural gas from offshore as the principal raw material for the ammonia and urea production. However the natural gas contains H2S which corrodes the pipework and forms scale in the gas stream. This scale, together with any entrained particulates, must be removed from the gas stream prior to downstream processing.

To accomplish this critical gas cleaning, ERG is supplying two specially designed high-pressure venturi scrubbers to remove >99.5% of particulates. The QAFCO 5 scrubbers will be constructed from 25mm thick 316L stainless steel and each system will be capable of conditioning 90,000Nm3/hr of gas.

James Scott-Bowden, Managing Director of ERG commented: “Few companies in the world have our unique experience and specialist knowledge in designing high pressure gas conditioning systems. We are delighted to have been awarded this prestigious contract and look forwarded to working with Saipem”.