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Dorogobuzh Launches New Nitric Acid Unit

Dorogobuzh (a member of Acron Group) has launched a new 135-ktpa UKL nitric acid unit at its production facility in Smolensk region. Acron Engineering Research and Design Centre is the general designer of this project, which cost USD17 million. 
Once the fourth UKL unit is put into operation, Dorogobuzh’s overall nitric acid capacity will reach 1.5 million tonnes per annum. 

Chairman of Acron’s Board of Directors Alexander Popov noted, ‘Construction of the fourth nitric acid unit at Dorogobuzh is an important element of Acron Group’s investment programme. The new unit will help increase the output of our key products – ammonium nitrate and NPK fertilisers’. 

The first units producing nitric acid as feedstock for mineral fertilisers were commissioned at Dorogobuzh in the 1970s–1980s. The new UKL-7M unit is a state-of-art facility complying with the best technology standards for non-concentrated nitric acid production in terms of process emissions. 

The GTU-8 gas turbine, a cutting-edge high-tech centrifugal compressor with lower power consumption rate, higher capacity and consistency of operation, is the key component of the new facility. It is compact and more reliable in terms of maintenance and control. Using the highly efficient GTU-8 gas turbine, Dorogobuzh will significantly cut gas consumption and increase the service life of the catalyst system because the expensive catalyst grids will be replaced half as often – only once a year. The changes in the process of air supply to the bleaching tower will help improve the quality of nitric acid.