The presentation will provide a comprehensive outlook on the nitrogen and syngas markets in 2026, offering critical insights into the economic and geopolitical factors shaping the industry. Feedstock volatility, rapidly evolving trade policy, supply chain disruption, expanding climate policy tools and deteriorating affordability are challenging market participants with growing uncertainty around supply and demand planning, competitiveness and market access. This session will provide key insights necessary to navigate the increasingly complex global market environment. 

Discover how Nutrien transformed its 1960s Kellogg Geismar, Louisiana ammonia plant into the most extensively debottlenecked facility of its vintage—reaching 1,950 STPD. This presentation shows how front-end pressure limits were confirmed and relieved via a 2024 Low Temperature Shift redesign: Short Shifts placed in-series and run parallel to the main LTS, plus Topsoe internals. Outcome: 16 psi lower pressure drop and +22 STPD, with safety and lessons learned.

Nutrien

Planned major capital work between the 7th and 8th editions of API RP 941 may have left syngas equipment operating above today’s HTHA limits—especially non-PWHT carbon steel and carbon-½ moly installed in 2008–2016/17. This presentation shares a case history, showing how the risk was identified and managed using Becht’s HTHA modelling software, and why retroactive reassessment to the current API RP 941 is recommended.

Learn from a real start-up incident in a large hydrogen plant where steam methane reforming furnace tube failures led to multiple leaks and significant furnace damage. This presentation walks through the event timeline, damage extent, investigation findings, and practical lessons to prevent recurrence. It reinforces critical start-up operating considerations and the layers of protection that must be verified to avoid catastrophic failures and rare, but severe, loss-of-containment risks.

Hear the Fort Dodge ammonia plant’s 2024 startup near-miss: a short shift reactor runaway that exceeded vessel MAWT. Despite isolation, reverse flow through a pilot-operated PSV on a common vent line fed H2-rich gas, driving temperature and pressure rise and shortening catalyst life. Learn investigation findings, overlooked flow paths, and SOP: nitrogen pressurization after bed swaps to prevent future recurrence.

Make every SMR turnaround count with a practical deep-dive on Waste Heat Boiler inspections. Learn how to plan, prioritize, and execute gas-side and water/steam-side checks using visual methods plus borescopes and targeted NDE. See real case studies covering refractory, tube sheets, superheaters, economizers, drums, and attemperators—spotting vibration, overheat, corrosion, fouling, and deposit risks before reliability suffers and preventing costly forced outages.

HRST

Mineral scale in cooling-water heat exchangers can quickly become a hidden production bottleneck, especially as towers run at higher cycles and chemical control slips. This presentation introduces Veolia’s targeted online cleaning method—intermittent acidic cycles that remove deposits from individual exchangers or piping without shutdown while minimizing network corrosion risk. Attendees gain implementation criteria, safety protocols, economics, and ammonia-industry case studies.

Veolia

Upgrade your ammonia revamp know-how in a hands-on training workshop built on real operational case studies—from legacy units to newly built plants. Explore novel low-CO2 process configurations, including oxygen-based schemes and green hydrogen integration. Get an objective view of what works (and what doesn’t) using real-world data. Leave with practical solutions to debottlenecking, energy efficiency, and safety risks across reforming and CO2 removal.

Restore SMR furnace reliability by mastering real-world heat-transfer non-uniformity. This mechanical training workshop explains why uniform heat flux matters, how SMR furnaces should be designed for long-term tube life, and what to do when decades of uprates, tube swaps, uneven burners, and tramp air make conditions non-ideal. Learn practical diagnostics and retrofit options from BD Energy Systems’ revamp experience, with interactive Q&A and discussion.

Learn from a near-miss on Hydrogen 2: after a May 22, 2019 pit-stop restart, a methanator exotherm surged. Investigation traced it to CO2 removal—collapsed stripper packing migrated downstream, starving stripping air and cutting CO2 efficiency, forcing shutdown. This talk delivers root causes, corrective actions, and procedural safeguards for transient operations, exposing vulnerabilities common in legacy plants before temperatures reached excursion.

Protect your ammonia cracker from silent alloy attack. This presentation reveals new lab data on nitridation resistance of industrial heat-exchanger tube alloys—including nickel-based Alloy 625—under ammonia-rich, high-temperature cracking conditions. We quantify weight gain, nitride depth, porosity, and nitrogen diffusion, link microstructure to performance, and introduce a practical alloy ranking framework to guide material selection and extend service life and uptime.

How do you push a 650-TPD Kellogg ammonia plant to 1,300 TPD—and keep reactors healthy? Koch Ft. Dodge will share the 2022 upgrade journey that lifted rates from 950 to ~1,300 TPD, then revealed a rising High Temperature Shift Reactor pressure drop. We’ll connect operating data with CFD insights, diagnose maldistribution, and outline practical fixes for sustained over-design operation reliability.

Chronic LTS pressure drop and premature catalyst failures were cutting ammonia output at Koch Fertilizer’s Enid, Oklahoma plant. This case study shows how a design-and-operations review exposed moisture carryover from an undersized cyclone and how Johnson Matthey’s KATALCO 83-3 plus revised support balls transformed performance. Implemented June 2021, the bed now runs four+ years, ~1 psi/year ΔP growth, with activity.

Running KBR secondary reformer Waste Heat Boiler 101-C at >150% nameplate exposes legacy MWK bundle limits—plugging, bayonet maintenance, and shortened life. This presentation shares proven repair and replacement tactics, plus in-repair upgrades that extend reliability. Explore next-generation floating-head replacement bundles with advanced metallurgy and smarter thermal design, and a single-vessel concept replacing 101-CA/CB/102-C to cut downtime during modern high-rate operation.

Join this technical presentation on how microalloying reshapes HPNb catalyst-tube life at 900–1100 °C. See how carbide morphology and dendrite refinement drive performance: Mo/W/V boost strength; Ti/Zr extend creep life. Get practical guidance for furnace material selection under severe industrial service.

Master boiler reliability from the inside out in this hands-on workshop. We’ll map the three support systems—pretreatment, feedwater/deaeration, and condensate return—and show how solids, oxygen, and contamination trigger deposits, corrosion, steam purity losses, and shutdowns. Using ammonia waste-heat boiler case examples, you’ll learn monitoring strategies, respond to catalyst fines and hydrogen embrittlement risks, and optimize firing, excess air, and superheat.

Nalco Company

Stop pulling pumps out of service. This hands-on workshop demystifies centrifugal pump failure modes: suction recirculation, discharge recirculation, close-clearance wear, and resonance—drivers of vibration, bearing heat, seal leaks, and lost capacity. Learn the theory, how to spot each issue in the field, and proven upgrade options. Case studies tie it together, plus guidance on BEP operation, Gap A/B/C, and tolerances.

Unlock next-generation catalyst operations for syngas and ammonia. In this workshop, Clariant’s Applied Catalyst Technology experts explain how to run modern high-performance catalysts to boost yield and cut energy. Learn critical operating parameters, monitoring and troubleshooting, cloud dashboards with 24/7 real-time data, and AI health alerts with machine-learning projections. Includes ammonia synthesis reduction tools and furnace surveys for safe optimization.

Clariant

TBC

Join this presentation and see how Koch Fertilizer’s Fort Dodge Kellogg plant was revamped to unlock new capacity through an Uhde–Johnson Matthey collaboration. A new uhde® ammonia converter and once-through synthesis reactor enabled the dual-pressure process, with a cartridge insert retrofitted into the existing shell. Safe, running-plant installation maintained nitrogen inerting. Commissioning was seamless, and KATALCO 74-1 proved performance at 66 barg under load.

Thyssenkrupp Uhde

Learn how to extend the life of your high-pressure urea synthesis equipment. This technical presentation shares Stamicarbon’s corrosion-mitigation playbook—from robust equipment design to proven materials like X2CrNiMo25-22-2 and E-type super duplex stainless steel (Safurex). Learn how advanced inspection, monitoring, and repair procedures prevent failures and enable lifetime extension. Real case studies cover planned refurbishments and ARS 24/7 emergency repairs to keep plants online.

Discover how Koch Fertilizer’s Wever, Iowa ammonia plant stopped runaway HDS pressure drop. Startup coking on the feed preheat coil shed particulates into the catalyst bed, driving ΔP from 2 to 28 psi (2022–2025) and shortening runs. We’ll present a first-in-ammonia grading retrofit: Topsoe TK-15 and TK-26 Top Trap over TK-261 NiMo, stabilizing ΔP at 1.8 psi by August 2025.

Topsoe

See how Koch Fertilizer is pairing energy efficiency with a 10% ammonia capacity increase through a new Casale converter revamp. The full-opening, cold-wall vertical reactor—single-wall low-alloy steel, three catalyst beds, three interbed exchangers, and axial-radial internals—boosts reliability while enabling lower synthesis-loop pressure. Powered by AmoMax®-Casale catalyst, the upgrade delivers higher output and operational excellence for today’s energy and emissions targets.

Hear North America case studies on degradation mechanisms, material selection—stainless to super-duplex and noble alloys—and upgrades that extend lifetime. In this presentation we discuss how to keep your urea plant online with Casale’s high-pressure equipment expertise. From Casale's first North American HP stripper and reactor supply in 1994 to today’s revamps, the company blend process and mechanical know-how to repair, replace, and debottleneck reactors, HP strippers, and more.

Casale

Modularization is redefining how mega ammonia–urea projects get built. In this technical presentation, Saipem shares lessons from the CERES EPC in Australia: the first Topsoe Ammonia SynCOR complex in advanced construction with extensive prefabricated modules. Learn how self-contained ME&I modules cut site labor, improve QA/QC, de-risk logistics, accelerate commissioning, and deliver safer, cost-optimized schedules for blue and green fertilizer projects.

Saipem

Fired heater flooding turns reformer fireboxes fuel-rich, destabilizing flames and storing unburned fuel that can detonate. This presentation equips syngas and nitrogen operators to recognize indicators, understand mechanical and process causes, and respond safely within Burner Management System protocols. Learn calibration and DCS monitoring practices, maintenance priorities, and training methods that prevent floods, protect people, and reduce unplanned costly downtime.

John Zink, Koch

Chronic SCR fouling was derating a methanol reformer: rising ΔP, CO2/O2 slip, and NOx exceedances. This technical presentation shares a progressive, three-phase mitigation program that restored compliance and reliability—online Hot Vacuum Service cleaning for immediate recovery, Cetek ceramic coating to encapsulate degrading SMR transition-duct fibers, and a Fine Particle Screen for long-term interception. Results: sustained lower ΔP, extended catalyst life.

Integrated Global Services (IGS)   

Move beyond static setpoints. This technical presentation shows how to unite hybrid first-principles + machine-learning models with AI-driven catalyst health monitoring across reformer, shift, and synloop. Real plant cases demonstrate up to 0.5% energy reduction, improved stability, earlier upset detection, and longer catalyst life via soft sensors, health alerts, and performance projections—embedded into operators’ daily routines with confidence.

Discover how AI-driven Asset Performance Management (APM) and real-time process optimization can be integrated across ammonia, urea, and other syngas derivatives. This technical presentation highlights how predictive asset health insights and risk-based maintenance cut compressor and pump downtime—proven by 50 hours avoided in just three months—while next-generation optimization goes beyond linear APC to deliver 1–2% throughput uplift and 0.5–1% lower SNEC.

Cut turnaround time and reduce confined-space exposure in ammonia synthesis catalyst work. This technical presentation introduces CATMASTERS LLC’s Hyperloader™ with D-Duster™ in-line screening and Catoscop™ automated handling—enabling faster loading with fewer people and minimal vessel entry. Then learn TOPSOE’s FastAct™ activation service, using online water/ammonia analytics to control reduction conditions and unlock long-term catalyst performance from day one through decades.

Topsoe

Ammonia storage tanks face a persistent threat: anhydrous-ammonia stress-corrosion cracking in carbon steel—often assessed with limited in-service data. This technical presentation shows how to strengthen Risk-Based Inspection by integrating fracture mechanics Fitness-for-Service evaluations to quantify crack growth and Probability of Failure over time. See a practical case study that combines RBI and FFS into one risk picture for smarter, safer inspection planning.

Equity Engineering  

Master cooling-water reliability in ammonia and methanol plants in this interactive workshop. Sr Cooling Water Specialist Robin Wright explains real-world system challenges and innovative mitigation strategies. Sr. Metallurgist Mel Esmacher walks through analytical failure-investigation methods when best practices slip. Handle physical samples of failed piping and equipment to connect operating conditions with damage mechanisms. Ray Titsing adds ammonia insights and practical steps to prevent failures.

Nickel-based superalloys are the workhorses behind high-temperature reliability—when carbon, nitrogen, sulfur, and halogens are trying to destroy your equipment. In this workshop, learn how alloying and protective scale design (chromia, alumina, silicon-rich layers) governs sulfidation, carburization, nitridation, and metal dusting, and why copper can suppress coking. We’ll connect degradation mechanisms to creep strength and smarter alloy selection up to 1200 °C.

Haynes International, Inc

Build faster, defensible brittle fracture protection into your site integrity program. This intermediate workshop demystifies ASME/API screening methods that let teams rapidly assess most equipment and piping, then shows what to check—materials, design details, and practical shortcuts. Learn when basic screens become overly conservative and how to escalate efficiently. Grounded in PHA use cases, we’ll review the threat history, today’s code landscape, and real application examples.

Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc.