The heat is on
Fertilizer production plant owners continue to search for ways to remain competitive. Improving product quality, creating new formulations, reducing operational costs and maximizing market share are examples of some of the initiatives that producers are focused on when looking to get the most out of their operations.
Yet product quality becomes challenging for producers located in hot and/or humid climatic conditions where they struggle with agglomeration — not only in the plant’s warehouses, but also during transportation to final user’s locations. As a result, many plants turn to inefficient mitigation practices such as bulk storage where the product is left to sit and cool for days or, worse yet, planned rate reductions that lower throughputs to allow their limited cooling capacity to cool their product down to an acceptable temperature.
In the March 2021 issue of World Fertilizer Magazine, Igor Makarenko, Global Director of Fertilizer at Solex Thermal Science, discusses how vertical plate technology allows fertilizer plant operators to consistently cool their product prior to packing and storage independent of ambient temperatures.
By doing so, production can send cooled product directly to the loadout, thereby eliminating the need for warehouse cooling practices and avoiding planned production rate turndowns.
Also featured is the case study of Novomoskovskiy Azot (NAK Azot) and how the second largest ammonia producer and the largest nitrogen fertilizer producer in Russia was able to integrate vertical plate technology into its operations and eliminate its reliance on bulk storage, thereby recouping the three- to four-day final cooling time.
Download a pdf to read the full story.
This entry was last updated on 2021-3-11
Return to Articles