MADRAS FERTILIZERS LIMITED is a Central Public Sector Undertaking situated at Manali near Chennai in Tamil Nadu, South India. MFL is an ISO-9001:-2008 and ISO-14001:2004 certified company.
MFL consists of production plants, Ammonia, Urea in single streams and NPK in three streams, viz. NPK A Train, B Train and C Train. Utilities Plant is the service plant supplying treated water, cooling water, off-site steam, instrument air, captive power and emergency power.
On November 1, 1971, MFL commenced commercial production of Ammonia, Urea and NPK complex. Until Apr 2019, Ammonia plant was using Naphtha as Feedstock which was supplied by the neighbouring industry M/s Chennai Petroleum Corporation Limited (CPCL). Presently the Feed stock of RLNG is being supplied by M/s IOCL from Ennore Terminal..
The original Ammonia / Urea Plants were of Chemico design with the daily rated capacity of 750 MT (247500 MTPA) and 885 MT (292000 MTPA) respectively. Initially there were only two trains to produce granulated complex fertilizers with a total installed capacity of 360000 MTPA and in September 1976 one more NPK stream, namely C Train, was added raising the installed capacity to 540000 MTPA, all by Hindustan Dorr Oliver.
In 1991, the old Chemico converter of Ammonia Plant was replaced with the latest S 200 Radial Converter.
The company, to extend the economic life of the plants by another 15 years and also envisaging improvement in energy consumption, undertook a major Revamp-cum-Modernization and Capacity Enhancement of its plants at a cost of Rs 600 Cr during 1993-1998. Production from the Revamped Plants commenced from March 3, 1998.
Process License and Basic Engineering from M/s Haldor Topsoe, Denmark for Ammonia Plant and from M/s Urea Technologies Inc., U.S.A for Urea Plant was adopted with modern Distributed Control System (DCS). The enhanced production capacities are 1050 MTPD for Ammonia (346500 MTPA) and 1475 MTPD for Urea (486750 MTPD). With respect to NPK, Pipe-reactor with Process License & Basic Engineering from M/s Grande Parroise, France was incorporated in NPK B Train. By this and along with higher on-stream efficiency, the installed capacity was raised to 2550 MTPD (840000 MTPD).
After overcoming initial teething troubles, the Ammonia & Urea Plants reached 87% and 83% capacity utilization levels in 1999-2000. To improve product quality and bring down product temperature before admitting into bagging streams, Prill Tower modification was carried out by Monsanto Enviro-Chem (MECSI), U.S.A. and a fluidized bed cooler (Prills Cooling System PCS) was put into service.
Feed stock Conversion:
MFL successfully completed the Feedstock Conversion Naphtha to RLNG during July 2019.
Advanced Process Controller (APC) was installed in Ammonia & Urea plants which have helped in bringing down the specific energy consumption
| Description | Production | Cap.Uti% | Feedstock | Specific Energy Consumption | ||||||
| Ammonia | Urea | NPK | Ammonia | Urea | NPK | Naphtha | RLNG | Ammonia | Urea | |
| Unit | MT | MT | MT | % | % | % | MT/MT | MMSCM/MT | Gcal/MT | Gcal/MT |
| 1998-1999 | 260062 | 327982 | 732911 | 75.1 | 67.4 | 87.3 | 0.826 | - | 11.661 | 9.579 |
| 1999-2000 | 301182 | 403760 | 811260 | 86.9 | 83 | 96.6 | 0.783 | - | 10.951 | 8.358 |
| 2000-2001 | 298000 | 401570 | 731447 | 86 | 82.5 | 87.1 | 0.791 | - | 10.711 | 8.396 |
| 2001-2002 | 216778 | 286891 | 573131 | 62.6 | 58.9 | 68.2 | 0.818 | - | 11.542 | 9.004 |
| 2002-2003 | 265011 | 401249 | 415044 | 76.5 | 82.4 | 49.4 | 0.797 | - | 11.099 | 8.358 |
| 2003-2004 | 259622 | 387678 | 428612 | 74.9 | 79.6 | 51 | 0.778 | - | 10.674 | 8.02 |
| 2004-2005 | 300886 | 473032 | 333475 | 86.8 | 97.2 | 39.7 | 0.757 | - | 10.411 | 7.766 |
| 2005-2006 | 227066 | 368500 | 208193 | 65.5 | 75.7 | 24.8 | 0.761 | - | 10.917 | 8.099 |
| 2006-2007 | 281312 | 473363 | 57130 | 81.2 | 97.2 | 6.8 | 0.764 | - | 10.758 | 7.908 |
| 2007-2008 | 265108 | 440499 | 35165 | 76.5 | 90.5 | 4.2 | 0.751 | - | 10.61 | 7.802 |
| 2008-2009 | 232300 | 405951 | 0 | 67 | 83.4 | 0 | 0.76 | - | 10.865 | 7.929 |
| 2009-2010 | 258150 | 436100 | 7335 | 74.5 | 89.6 | 0.9 | 0.777 | - | 10.789 | 7.834 |
| 2010-2011 | 280408 | 478834 | 40578 | 80.9 | 98.4 | 4.8 | 0.761 | - | 10.334 | 7.492 |
| 2011-2012 | 283205 | 486750 | 35905 | 81.7 | 100 | 4.3 | 0.762 | - | 10.369 | 7.517 |
| 2012-2013 | 260804 | 435771 | 100125 | 75.3 | 89.5 | 11.9 | 0.79 | - | 10.908 | 7.822 |
| 2013-2014 | 285925 | 486750 | 44860 | 82.5 | 100 | 5.3 | 0.737 | - | 10.085 | 7.386 |
| 2014-2015 | 196894 | 328900 | 74272 | 56.8 | 67.6 | 8.8 | 0.791 | - | 11.283 | 8.086 |
| 2015-2016 | 236466 | 407311 | 34816 | 68.2 | 83.7 | 4.1 | 0.765 | - | 10.456 | 7.645 |
| 2016-2017 | 275330 | 468438 | 48895 | 79.5 | 96.2 | 5.8 | 0.759 | - | 10.191 | 7.46 |
| 2017-2018 | 252258 | 418898 | 62110 | 72.8 | 86.1 | 7.4 | 0.775 | - | 10.719 | 7.827 |
| 2018-2019 | 229774 | 394300 | 25160 | 66.3 | 81 | 3 | 0.761 | - | 10.749 | 7.808 |
| 2019-2020 | 211498 | 345150 | 65000 | 61 | 70.9 | 7.7 | - | 0.00093 | 10.659 | 7.873 |
| 2020-2021 | 283664 | 480865 | 53565 | 81.9 | 98.8 | 19.1 | - | 0.000945 | 10.359 | 7.637 |
| 2021-2022 | 295171 | 503900 | 24125 | 85.2 | 103.5 | 8.6 | - | 0.000932 | 9.981 | 7.371 |
| 2022-2023 | 298046 | 519800 | 7507 | 86 | 106.8 | 2.7 | - | 0.00098 | 10.442 | 7.584 |
SWITCHING OVER TO RE-LIQUEFIED NATURAL GAS (RLNG) FEED STOCK FROM NAPHTHA
- MFL has successfully completed the Ammonia Plant Feed stock and fuel conversion from Naphtha to RLNG during July 2019. Also, fuel has been changed over from Fuel Oil to RLNG for two Auxiliary Boilers of Ammonia Plant namely 110 Ata Boiler and Process Condensate Boiler.
- Fuel conversion from Fuel Oil to RLNG is being carried out for one of the Auxiliary Boiler in Utility Plant
- CONVERSION TO RLNG FEED / FUEL RESULTED IN:
- Pollution free environment conditions.
- Lower energy consumption.
- Better operational control and flexibility.
- Extension of catalyst’s life.
