Another one bites the dust
The fertilizer industry continues to invest billions of dollars in upgrades to make production processes more efficient and sustainable. This is in response to a continuing trend of farmers increasing their use of fertilizer for improved crop production yields due to soaring demand for food from the world's growing population.
One of the most significant obstacles to improved efficiencies and sustainability, however, continues to be dust. Created by the breakdown of fertilizer product into fines within process equipment and during transport — through what is commonly known as attrition — the impact of fugitive dust is significant. Safety concerns, product loss and contamination, among others, are just a few of the negative side effects.
In the September issue of World Fertilizer Magazine, Igor Makarenko, Global Director, Fertilizer for Solex Thermal Science, discusses how vertical plate technology is mitigating the further spread of dust. In addition to being a more efficiently designed heat exchange solution that gently handles fertilizer and thereby prevents further product degradation from occurring, Solex is also using a new de-dusting solution that eliminates dust from ever entering the cooling section of the unit.
Achieved through the addition of a cascade aspirator before the inlet, a series of specially designed slides allow the product to slide gently back and forth downward by gravity while ambient air is drawn upwards through the product to "lift" smaller fines into a selection chamber. The rest of the product is drawn through the unit.
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This entry was last updated on 2022-5-2
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