Unlocking ammonia’s potential Amixo

Amixo´s new ammonia storage, 3 × 60 tons

UNLOCKING AMMONIA’S POTENTIAL

The Swedish company Amixo AB is based near Örebro and supplies ammonia for various industrial purposes. Joseph Altham spoke to Amixo’s CEO, Torbjörn Kjellner, to find out about the company’s plans to manufacture ammonia solution, a product which is used to lower emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) from power plants.

Torbjörn and truck driver Denny Brännström at Stora Höberg

Amixo began in 1989 as a supplier of ammonia fertiliser to Swedish farmers. The company is a family-run concern, and Torbjörn Kjellner comes from a farming background. “Although I’m happy to be described as a country boy, fertiliser is only a small part of what we do at Amixo today.”

Indeed, soon after it was founded Amixo moved into selling ammonia to different industries. “We realised that industry was a better market. Our first customer was Bodycote, which uses ammonia for metal treatment. We found three or four new customers every year from within Swedish industry. The market was small in the beginning but has grown rapidly since.”

In the 1990s, Amixo started to sell ammonia for refrigeration. The company now supplies ammonia as a refrigerant to many different businesses, from abattoirs to ice-rinks. It can deliver ammonia both by rail and by truck. The company’s road tanker carries up to 24 tonnes of ammonia. For smaller quantities, it will deliver ammonia in cylinders. Amixo’s ‘maxi tanks’, large cylinders each holding 520kg, are another popular option.

While the majority of Amixo’s sales are within Sweden, the company also has many customers in Norway and Denmark, and exports are increasing. “We are finding new markets for our Ammonia Premium 3.8 throughout northern Europe. Some deliveries have already been made to Finland, Poland and Germany.”

Industrial applications

Amixo currently sells two kinds of ammonia qualities: Premium 3.8 and Standard 2.8. These are both anhydrous ammonia. The difference between them is in their level of purity. While the Standard 2.8 ammonia has a concentration of 99.8 per cent, the Premium 3.8 has a higher concentration of 99.98 per cent. “The Premium 3.8 has a very low water content, of no more than 200 parts per million,” Mr Kjellner explained.

The most important applications for Amixo’s ammonia are the heat treatment of steel and refrigeration, where the low water content is vital. “When ammonia is used in metallurgy, water would have a bad effect on the process. With refrigeration, the water content of ammonia must be kept to a minimum because excess water would cause corrosion as well as undermining the capacity of the system.”

In metallurgy, Amixo supplies ammonia for the nitriding of steel. This heat treatment process, whose function is to harden the metal, is widely used for the production of car parts. Amixo also supplies ammonia that is used in metallurgy as a source of hydrogen. “Customers want large quantities of hydrogen in the oven. The hydrogen is needed to stop scale from building up on the surface of the steel as a result of oxidisation.”

Strategic location

Amixo bought its current site in Kvarntorp in 2007. The location has the advantage of excellent road and rail connections. “We are close to the main road to Norway. Most of our

Torbjörn Kjellner, managing director

deliveries go by rail and we are only 10 kilometres from the railway junction at Hallsberg.” A railway links the Kvarntorp site to Hallsberg, allowing Amixo to deliver directly by rail.

Amixo buys its ammonia from the Norwegian chemical company, Yara. It stores the ammonia in big tanks with a storage capacity of 180 tonnes. The company created a new Ammonia Terminal in 2009, involving an investment of €1.5 million. As part of this investment, it extended the railway track by 200 metres to bring the line right into the site.

Lowering NOx emissions

Hitherto, Amixo’s business had been limited to the distribution of ammonia. However, this situation is about to change since the company plans to produce ammonia water (ammonia solution). According to Mr Kjellner, there is an increasing demand for ammonia as a means of lowering emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) from power plants. “We are now waiting for permission to produce ammonia water and expect to begin production in October 2012. This is an investment of around €500,000. Once production of the ammonia water has started, we expect to triple our turnover within three or four years. This will be the biggest step in the company’s history.”

The reason Mr Kjellner sounds so confident is that demand to reduce the emissions of NOx from different types of combustion plants around the world has accelerated during the last decade, not only because of standards and claims from the authorities but also from the companies’ own environmental policies. NOx gases are harmful to the environment because they cause acid rain and pollution of the air which damages forests. Ammonia solution reduces the level of NOx in the smoke by reacting with the NOx gases and forming harmless nitrogen and water.

Mr Kjellner also believes that carbon capture could represent yet another exciting market for his company. “We have won the first contract in Scandinavia to deliver Premium 3.8 ammonia for use in the capture of CO2. Technology is making new advances every day and ammonia will offer a way to cut the CO2 emissions from different types of combustion plants all over Europe.” n

Read more about Carbon Capture Systems at Amixo’s homepage: www.amixo.se

Amixo´s safety adviser Krister Emanuelsson with focus on safe transports

Left to right: Jan Johansson, Anders Persson, Åsa Broström Molin, Torbjörn Kjellner, Helena Sevón and Krister Emanuelsson

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