2024 Annual Safety in Ammonia Plants and Related Facilities Symposium

The 2024 Annual Safety in Ammonia Plants and Related Facilities Symposium was held on Sept. 9–12, 2024, in San Diego, CA. This year marked the 68th year the symposium was organized by AIChE.

“The objectives of the symposium are to improve the safety performance of the ammonia industry, and to make our plants and related facilities as safe and reliable as possible,” says Mohamad Noueiri (Yara Asia), 2024 Program Chairman. The event achieved this objective through several sessions packed with nearly 30 presentations, as well as a roundtable discussion session. More than 300 attendees from all over the globe attended the symposium.

Hot topics, keynotes, and sessions

 At the symposium, attendees learned about numerous ammonia safety topics, including how green ammonia can be safely produced at a large scale, how past plant safety failures can be analyzed to prevent future incidents, and how ammonia-based systems can be upgraded to fit the latest safety criteria and become more reliable. “I think the use of artifical intelligence (AI) for process control as well as for improvements in maintenance and reliability is a definite trend that was highlighted by this conference,” says Marc Gilbertson (EDNF), 2025 Symposium Program Chair.

To kick off the week, Rob Stevens (Topsoe) presented the keynote address entitled “Ammonia as Energy Carrier. Scaling Risk. Risk of Scaling,” where he discussed the safe rollout of clean ammonia on a large scale. Following the keynote, several presentations used case studies to apprise attendees of past safety failures and maintenance strategies. For example, one case study focused on an abnormal temperature profile within an ammonia plant primary reformer. The presenter, Samuel Okulaja (Nutrien), detailed the routine inspection findings, the failure analysis, the risk management strategies, and the long-term recommendations for the process unit. Another case study, presented by Berit Moltu and Vahid Alipour Tabrizy (Equinor ASA), investigated major historical ammonia safety incidents and outlined a general framework for preventing future accidents.

The roundtable discussion, held on the last day of the conference, featured presentations from panelists followed by a question-and-answer session. Topics consisted of popular subject matter such as the future of AI in the ammonia production industry, past industry safety incidents, replacing ammonia catalytic converters, and establishing standards for ammonia production.

The Ammonia Safety Committee was integral in putting together the annual symposium. The committee — composed of 16 members representing nine different countries — is a group of subject matter experts and professionals in ammonia research, safety, and industry applications. The team (shown in the main image above) represents a diverse range of skill sets and varied companies in ammonia-related industries.

Next year’s conference

Next year the conference will be held in Atlanta, GA, on Sept. 7–11, 2025. Attendees have until Dec. 15, 2024, to submit abstracts and papers for the roundtable and general sessions. Symposium attendees receive proceedings from the symposium, including the entire collection of proceedings from the previous years.

This article originally appeared in the Industry News column in the November 2024 issue of CEP. Members have access online to complete issues, including a vast, searchable archive of back-issues found at www.aiche.org/cep.