KBR, the construction and engineering services company, has bagged a contract from the Iowa Fertilizer Company for providing engineering services, to grant license and supply its proprietary technology to Iowa Fertilizer’s new facility that is coming up in Southeastern Iowa.
The fertilizer plant will be the first global scale ammonia manufacturing facility to be established in the US in the past 25 years.
The Purifier technology from KBR, which has been proven to consume very low energy and is considered to be more reliable than traditional designs, will be employed in the design of the ammonia fertilizer plant. Iowa fertilizer, which is the wholly-owned subsidiary of Orascom Construction Industries, is modeling the fertilizer complex on an existing facility already operating since 2006 in Burrup, Australia.
The capacity of the ammonia facility is 2200 MTPD. John Derbyshire, President of KBR Technology, stated that contract awarded to KBR signifies a critical milestone in the fertilizer business of North America and demonstrates the impact of low prices of natural gas on the fertilizer industry in the next 5 to 10 years. He also said that the KBR offering, which is characterized by low capital cost, low energy consumption and extremely reliable technology will enable its customers to operate successfully in North America and yet retain their global competitive edge.
Nasser Sawiris, Chairman and CEO of Osasco Construction Industries, lauded the KBR Purifier technology for facilitating reliable and safe ammonia production and said that incorporating this technology will make them the most competitive player in the United States fertilizer market.