Acron Group is launching an investment project to increase the capacity of the Urea-6 unit at its production facility in Veliky Novgorod.
The Urea-6 unit was put into operation at the end of 2018. After assessing its sustainable performance, the Group resolved to transform Urea-6 into a large-capacity unit with annual output of up to 735,000 tonnes, increasing the unit’s capacity by over 500,000 tonnes. Once this is complete, the total urea capacity at Acron (Veliky Novgorod) will exceed 1.9 million tonnes per annum, making this production facility the largest urea producer both in Russia and in Europe.
The project is estimated to cost USD 81 million, with operations scheduled to start mid-2019. Novgorodsky GIAP (a member of Acron Group) is the project’s general designer. A new СО2 compressor will be purchased to improve the reliability of the process. Additionally, the fine discharge treatment units will be upgraded and a new finished product warehouse will be built.
“When we launched the Ammonia-4 unit in 2016, we understood that it would have a multiplier effect on further development of the entire production chain. However, the results exceeded our expectations. We continue building up our output and implementing a variety of projects with an extremely low specific CAPEX. We called the new project “Urea-6+” and expect that it will be completed in less than two years”, said Chairman of Acron Group’s Board of Directors Alexander Popov.
Urea is a high-analysis nitrogen fertiliser and a feedstock to produce urea-ammonium nitrate (UAN) and urea-formaldehyde resins (UFR). Urea contains more nitrogen than any other granular nitrogen fertilisers, making it the world’s most popular fertiliser. Urea is widely used to grow various crops on all types of soil. In 2018, Acton produced one million tonnes of urea, half of which was used to produce UAN and UFR.