Chittagong Urea Fertilizer Limited (CUFL) is heading back into fertiliser production now that its gas supply has returned to normal. Production of ammonia, the principal raw material for urea, has already begun, and the factory expects to start making urea itself as soon as mechanical faults are repaired.

The plant has been receiving gas according to demand for about a week and began producing ammonia on 9 September. Urea production had been targeted for Saturday, 12 September, but could not start because of faults in a urea plant that had stood idle for a long time. Staff are working to fix them.

A CUFL official told banglanews24 that the two main raw materials for urea are liquid ammonia and carbon dioxide. When a fertiliser plant stays shut, parts deteriorate and pipelines rust and spring leaks; those mechanical problems are now being dealt with. If everything goes to plan, the official said, the factory will produce 1,000 tonnes of urea a day.

An official of Karnaphuli Gas Distribution Company Limited said gas is supplied to fertiliser and power plants under government instruction. CUFL is currently receiving more than 40 million cubic feet a day, and supply can be increased if needed.

CUFL belongs to Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation under the Ministry of Industries. It was built at Rangadia in Anwara upazila of Chattogram, at the mouth of the Karnaphuli river, to produce nitrogen-rich prilled urea from natural gas. Construction began in October 1985, trial production on 29 October 1987 and commercial production in February 1988; the general contractor was Toyo Engineering Corporation of Japan.

The factory's jetty, 170 metres long and 25 metres wide, is also used to unload phosphoric acid for DAPFCL, and a separate local jetty serves the small lighter vessels that carry fertiliser around the country. Mechanical faults and gas shortages have repeatedly disrupted output in recent years, but the plant remains an important contributor to the country's urea supply.

Source: banglanews24