Acron Group launched a new large-scale project to expand and upgrade urea production at its Veliky Novgorod facility. Once the work is complete, the facility’s total urea production capacity will reach 2.4 million tonnes per year by 2023.
The project involves overhauling four urea units (Nos 1–4) with a capacity increase from 2,000 to 3,100 tonnes per day. To date, a licencing and equipment supply agreement is in place with Stamicarbon, the world leader in urea production technologies, and the basic design and detailed engineering documentation is in development.
In addition, Acron began construction at the same site of a second granulation plant with a capacity of 2,000 tonnes per day. The Company is now procuring equipment and doing zero–cycle work, which includes digging foundation pits and installing formwork and reinforcement mesh for the foundations of the processing buildings. Installation of metal framework will begin soon. A granulation unit, continuous handling system, evaporation unit, and integrated wastewater treatment plant will also be constructed. Plant commissioning is planned for 2023.
The estimated investment in upgrading units 1-4 and building the new granulation plant will total USD 92 million. The general designer of the project is Acron Engineering Research and Design Centre.
‘We continue to implement a series of effective investment projects at our flagship site in Veliky Novgorod to meet the growing demand for our products from both foreign consumers and Russian farmers’, said Alexander Popov, chairman of Acron’s Board of Directors. ‘These projects are in line with the company's ESG strategy for reducing negative environmental impact. By upgrading our urea production, we will reduce direct emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere by 270,000 tonnes per year’, Popov explained.
Today, Acron operates six urea units. Units Nos. 1−4 were launched at the Veliky Novgorod chemical plant between 1969 and 1972 and were later upgraded to 730,000 tonnes per year. Urea unit No. 5, with a capacity of 350,000 tonnes per year, was commissioned in 2012 and subsequently upgraded to 515,000 tonnes per year. In August 2021, Acron completed an overhaul of urea unit No. 6, which boosted the Group’s total urea production capacity to 2 million tonnes per year, making Acron’s site the largest urea producer in Europe.