2017 ANNA Conference - Austin Texas
ANNA 2017 Meeting Draws International Audience
Nearly 400 delegates from producer and supplier companies attended the 2017 ANNA Conference October 1-6 at the Hyatt Lost Pines Resort in Lost Pines, Texas. Participants traveled from around the globe, with 33 countries represented at the five-day international event.
Industry Consultant Hans Reuvers (formerly of BASF) and Karl Hohenwarter (Borealis) coordinated an information-packed technical program that included 21 ammonium nitrate and 21 nitric acid presentations, delivered by an international group of experts. Presentations covered a wide range of topics, including Environment Control, Legislation, incident review and AN Safety to Nitric Acid Papers focusing on plant operation, gauze design, and abatement.
Meeting participants recognized “Use of Thermal Images to Identify Flow Problems in an AN Neutralizer” by Rodrigo Dias Goncalves (Vale Cubatão Fertilizantes) as the top presentation in the AN session. Two presentations, “Installation of a new expansion turbine” by Nils D’Hoker (Yara) and “LOMO SCR – installing abatement on a 1965 plant” by Don Hays (DynoNobel), tied for the meeting’s best Nitric Acid session presentation.
Chair David Hind of Orica applauded the high level of quality technical papers from around the world as well as the good technical discussion those presentations generated. “The roundtable on Pump Design and AN Safety was particularly interesting and stimulating to facilitate,” he observed. “Personally, for myself, the time we spent with the exhibitors discussing our projects and future activities at Orica was invaluable.” Early feedback regarding this year’s conference has been positive.
ANNA 2017 included another successful exhibit hall, where 70 suppliers presented potential solutions for challenges that producer engineers face in their operations. When participants weren’t attending technical sessions or in the hall interacting with vendors, they had the opportunity to visit the nearby historic downtown Austin or participate the annual ANNA Golf Scramble.
