This plant, located in Coffeyville, Kansas, produces ammonia and urea ammonium nitrate (UAN) fertilizers. The plant is the only one in North America using a petroleum-coke based fertilizer production process (the petroleum coke, generated at an oil refinery next door to the plant, is gasified to produce hydrogen, from which ammonia and UAN fertilizers are subsequently synthesized). The plant produces about 5 percent of total UAN demand in the United States, and is located close to extensive fertilizer markets of the Midwest, lowering distribution costs of its products. In 2012, Coffeyville Resources Nitrogen Fertilizers produced 124,600 tons of ammonia available for sale, and also produced 643,800 tons of UAN1, using their 1,225 ton-per-day ammonia unit, 3,000 ton-per-day urea ammonium nitrate unit, and a dual-train gasifier complex having a capacity of 84 million standard cubic feet per day of hydrogen2.
The Coffeyville plant utilizes dual GE quench petcoke gasifiers (design capacity of 1,300 STPD) operating at a pressure of 620 psig (43 bar)3. An oxygen separation plant provides oxygen for the gasifiers, as well as nitrogen needed downstream for reaction with hydrogen to produce ammonia. Syngas is cleaned in a dual-stage acid gas removal process, separating H2S and CO2 in separate streams. Cleaned syngas is supplied to a Pressure Swing Absorption unit, separating pure hydrogen which is reacted with nitrogen in an ammonia plant. The facility has capability to process substantial amounts of the ammonia further into urea/ammonium nitrate fertilizer.