Separation techniques used in fertilizer industry

What IS FERTILIZERS? Fertilizer (or fertiliser) is any organic or inorganic material of natural or synthetic origin (other than liming materials) that is added to a soil to supply one or more plant nutrients essential to the growth of plants. Fertilizers typically provide, in varying proportions:

six macronutrients: nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), and sulfur (S); seven micronutrients: boron (B), chlorine (Cl), copper (Cu), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), molybdenum (Mo), and zinc (Zn). CLASSIFICATION: Fertilizers are broadly divided into organic fertilizers (composed of organic plant or animal matter), or inorganic or commercial fertilizers. Plants can only absorb their required nutrients if they are present in easily dissolved chemical compounds. Both organic and inorganic fertilizers provide the same needed chemical compounds. Organic fertilizers provided other macro and micro plant nutrients and are released as the organic matter decays--this may take months or years. Organic fertilizers nearly always have much lower concentrations of plant nutrients and have the usual problems of economical collection, treatment, transportation and distribution. Inorganic fertilizers nearly always are readily dissolved and unless added have few other macro and micro plant nutrients. Nearly all nitrogen that plants use are in the form of NH3 or NO3 compounds. The usable phosphorus compounds are usually in the form of phosphoric acid (H3PO4) and the potassium (K) is typically in the form of potassium chloride (KCl). In organic fertilizers nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium compounds are released from the complex organic compounds as the animal or plant decays. In commercial fertilizers the same required compounds are available in easily dissolved compounds that require no decay--they can be used almost immediately after water is applied. Inorganic fertilizers are usually much more concentrated with up to 64% (18-46-0) of their weight being a given plant nutrient, compared to organic fertilizers that typically often have only 0.4% or less of a their weight a given plant nutrient. Plants can only absorb their required nutrients if they are present in easily dissolved chemical compounds. Both organic and inorganic fertilizers provide the same needed chemical compounds. Organic fertilizers provided other macro and micro plant nutrients and are released as the organic matter decays--this may take months or years. Organic fertilizers nearly always have much lower concentrations of plant nutrients and have the usual problems of economical collection, treatment, transportation and distribution. Inorganic fertilizers nearly always are readily dissolved and unless added have few other macro and micro plant nutrients. Nearly all nitrogen that plants use are in the form of NH3 or NO3 compounds. The usable phosphorus compounds are usually in the form of phosphoric acid (H3PO4) and the potassium (K) is typically in the form of potassium chloride (KCl). In organic fertilizers nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium compounds are released from the complex organic compounds as the animal or plant decays. In commercial fertilizers the same required compounds are available in easily dissolved compounds that require no decay--they can be used

almost immediately after water is applied. Inorganic fertilizers are usually much more concentrated with up to 64% (18-46-0) of their weight being a given plant nutrient, compared to organic fertilizers that typically often have only 0.4% or less of a their weight a given plant nutrient.

Application
Synthetic fertilizers are commonly used for growing all crops, with application rates depending on the soil fertility, usually as measured by a soil test and according to the particular crop. Legumes, for example, fix nitrogen from the atmosphere and generally do not require nitrogen fertilizer. Studies have shown that application of nitrogen fertilizer on off-season cover crops can increase the biomass (and subsequent green manure value) of these crops, while having a beneficial effect on soil nitrogen levels for the main crop planted during the summer season.[20] Nutrients in soil can be thrown out of balance with high concentrations of fertilizers. The interconnectedness and complexity of this soil food web means any appraisal of soil function must necessarily take into account interactions with the living communities that exist within the soil. Stability of the system is reduced by the use of nitrogen-containing fertilizers, which cause soil acidification.

Applying excessive amounts of fertilizer has negative environmental effects, and wastes the growers' time and money. To avoid over-application, the nutrient status of crops should be assessed. Nutrient deficiency can be detected by visually assessing the physical symptoms of the crop. Nitrogen deficiency, for example has a distinctive presentation in some species. However, quantitative tests are more reliable for detecting nutrient deficiency before it has significantly affected the crop. Both soil tests and Plant Tissue Tests are used in agriculture to fine-tune nutrient management to the crops needs.

Problems with inorganic fertilizer

Common agricultural grade phosphate fertilizers usually contain impurities such as fluorides, cadmium and uranium, although concentrations of the latter two heavy metals are dependent on the source of the phosphate and the production process. These potentially harmful impurities can be removed; however, this significantly increases cost. Highly pure fertilizers are widely available and perhaps best known as the highly water soluble fertilizers containing blue dyes used around households. These highly water soluble fertilizers are used in the plant nursery business and are available in larger packages at significantly less cost than retail quantities. There are also some inexpensive retail granular garden fertilizers made with high purity ingredients. Oregon and Washing in U. S. have fertilizer registration programs with on-line databases listing chemical analyses of fertilizers.[21][22]

The most widely used inorganic fertilizer is super-phosphate and its double and triple strengthed derivatives double super and triple super. Super phosphate was first developed by Lawes at the Rothamstead Agricultural Research Institute in England in the early 19th Century (reference required). Lawes added sulfuric acid to conventional rock phosphate containing the mineral apatite, a calcium fluoro-phosphate. The resulting water soluble phosphorus was able to significantly improve yields on a variety of crops at the Rothamstead Centre and the Superphosphate industry was born. Unfortunately over decades of subsequent useage - it became clear that the solubilisation of fluorine also occurred in the process and this had the same effect as the other halogen sterilants(chlorine, bromine, iodine) over time - soil sterilization. Effectively farmers unknowingly became 100% dependent on 'bought in' water soluble, inorganic fertilizers since the sterilization of soil microflora including its micorhizza, reduced the availability of other natural and trace minerals within the soil. This to some extent explains the resurgence of interest in organic and particularly 'biodynamic' farming systems since these systems replace the essential soil organisms so essential to converting soil minerals into plant available (but rarely water soluble) nutrients. They do this by a variety of processes including chelation whereby essential minerals become plant available - as measured by weak citric acid extraction techniques. Hence the citric acid solubility of phosphate rocks has emerged as a measure of plant availability and enabled so-called 'reactive' phosphate rocks to be used as fertilizer minerals. These should not be confused with high fluorine apatite rocks in which the fluoride content performs a similar function to its role in hardening teeth enamel, ie immobilizing phosphorus. This explains the oceanic origins of many of these high fluorine rocks (Christmas Island, Ocean Island) since the fluorine absorbed from the sea has prevented what were originally massive deposits of bird guano - from being leached from the coral based limestone rocks on which they were originally deposited. Also regular use of acidulated fertilizers generally contribute to the accumulation of soil acidity in soils which progressively increases aluminium availability and hence toxicity. The use of such acidulated fertilizers in the tropical and semi-tropical regions of Indonesia and Malaysia has contributed to soil degredation on a large scale from aluminium toxicity, which can only be countered by applications of limestone or preferably magnesian dolomite, which neutralises acid soil pH and also provides essential magnesium.

techniques:
Chemical processes are used in the chemical industry to transform raw materials into more specialized products. The place where chemical products are produced is usually called chemical plant. The chemical industry relies on the knowledge and investigation of the chemical properties of different materials. Chemistry is the study of the matter and the transformations of it. While physics study matter from a more fundamental point of view, chemistry focuses on its composition, behavior, reactions, structure and properties. The study of the chemical reactions that affect matter gave humans the possibility to turn useless materials into more valuable and useful materials, through chemical transformations. Chemistry focuses on atoms, molecules, substances, crystals

and other kind of aggregates. A chemical process is a method in which one or more chemicals or chemical compounds are changed in some way. Let's remember that a chemical is a substance with a constant chemical composition and characteristic properties, that cannot be separated into components by physical separation methods, and without breaking chemical bonds. The basic reactions used in the chemical industry are: Oxidation, Reduction, Hydrogenation, Dehydrogenation, Hydrolysis, Hydration reaction, Dehydration, Halogenation, Nitrification, Sulfonation, Ammoniation, Alkaline fusion, Alkylation, Dealkylation, Esterification, Polymerization, Polycondensation and Catalysis. In many cases the reactions are conducted in specialized equipment resistant to corrosion and at elevated temperatures and pressures, with the use of catalysis. The products of these reactions are then separated using a variety of techniques like distillation, precipitation, crystallization, adsorption and filtration. Distillation is a separation technique that depends on boiling points. It is a physical separation process, not a chemical reaction. It is used to separate crude oil. Water is cleaned up by distillation to remove impurities like salt and other minerals. The air can be also put to distillation to separate it in components like oxygen, nitrogen and argon for their use in industry. The alcohol industry uses distillation to produce beverages with higher alcohol content. The place were alcohol is put to distillation is known as distillery. Fractional distillation is a more specialized process used to obtain specific chemical compounds. Precipitation is another separation method in which a solid is formatted in a solution or inside another solid during a chemical reaction or by diffusion in a solid. When this reaction occurs using a centrifuge, the solid formed is called pellet. When the reaction occurs in a liquid, the solid formed it is called precipitate.

Stripping Stripping is a physical separation process where one or more components are removed from a liquid stream by a vapor stream. In industrial applications the liquid and vapor streams can have co-current or countercurrent flows. Stripping is usually carried out in either a packed or trayed column. Stripping is mainly conducted in trayed towers (plate columns) and packed columns, and less often in spray towers, bubble columns, and centrifugal contactors.[1] Trayed towers consist of a vertical column with liquid flowing in the top and out the bottom. The vapor phase enters in the bottom of the column and exits out of the top. Inside of the column are trays or plates. These trays force the liquid to flow back and forth horizontally while the vapor bubbles up through holes in the trays. The purpose of these trays is to increase the amount of contact area between the liquid and vapor phases.

Packed columns are similar to trayed columns in that the liquid and vapor flows enter and exit in the same manner. The difference is that in packed towers there are no trays. Instead, packing is used to increase the contact area between the liquid and vapor phases. There are many different types of packing used and each one has advantages and disadvantages. http://www.coltrefining.com/refinig-types-chemical-stripping.htm

Absorption:
Absorption, in chemistry, is a physical or chemical phenomenon or a process in which atoms, molecules, or ions enter some bulk phase - gas, liquid, or solid material. This is a different process from adsorption, since molecules undergoing absorption are taken up by the volume, not by the surface (as in the case for adsorption). A more general term is sorption, which covers absorption, adsorption, and ion exchange. Absorption is a condition in which something takes in another substance.

urea manufacturing plant:

The reactor is operated at 190 0 C and an NH 3 :CO 2 molar feed ratio of 4:1. Liquidammonia is fed directly to the reactor, whereas gaseous carbon dioxide after compression isintroduced into the bottom of the stripper as a stripping aid. The synthesis mixture from thereactor, consisting of urea, unconverted ammonium carbamate, excess ammonia, and water, isfed to the top of the stripper. The stripper has two functions. Its upper part is equipped with trayswhere excess ammonia is partly separated from the stripper feed by direct countercurrent contactof the feed solution with the gas coming from the lower part of the stripper. This pre stripping inthe top is said to be required to achieve effective CO 2 stripping in the lower part. In the lowerpart of the stripper (a falling film heater), ammonium carbamate is decomposed and the resultingCO 2 and NH 3 as well as the excess NH 3 are evaporated by CO 2 stripping and steam heating. Theoverhead gaseous mixture from the top of the stripper is introduced into the carbamatecondenser. Here the gaseous mixture is condensed and absorbed by the carbamate solutioncoming from the medium pressure recovery stage. Heat liberated in the high pressure carbamatecondenser is used to generate low pressure steam. The gas and liquid

from the carbamatecondensers are recycled to the reactor by gravity flow. The urea solution from the stripper, with atypical NH 3 content of 15 wt%, is purified further in the subsequent medium and low pressuredecomposers, operating at 17.5 and 2.5 bars, respectively. Ammonia and carbon dioxideseparated from the urea solution here are recovered through stepwise absorption in the low andmedium pressure absorbers. Condensation heat in the medium pressure absorber is transferreddirectly to the aqueous urea solution feed in the final concentration section; the purified ureasolution is concentrated further either by two stage evaporation up to 99.7 % for urea prillproduction or by a single evaporation 98.5 % for urea granule production. Water vapour formedin the final concentrating section is condensed in surface condensers to form process condensate.Part of this condensate is used as an absorbent in the recovery sections, where as remainder ispurified in the process condensate treatment section by hydrolysis and steam stripping, beforebeing discharge from the urea plant.The highly concentrated urea solution is finally processed either through the prillingtower or via the urea granulator. Instead of concentration via evaporation, the ACES process canalso be combined with a crystallization section to produce urea with low biuret content.

Stripper:
Carbon dioxide is introduced into the bottom of the stripper as a stripping aid. Thesynthesis mixture from the reactor, consisting of urea, unconverted ammonium carbamate,excess ammonia, and water, is fed to the top of the stripper. Medium pressure steam is suppliedto the stripper. The stripper has two functions. Its upper part is equipped with trays where excessammonia is partly separated from the stripper feed by direct countercurrent contact of the feedsolution with the gas coming from the lower part of the stripper. This pre stripping in the top issaid to be required to achieve effective CO 2 stripping in the lower part. In the lower part of thestripper (a falling film heater), ammonium carbamate is decomposed and the resulting CO 2 andNH 3 as well as the excess NH 3 are evaporated by CO 2 stripping and steam heating. The overheadgaseous mixture from the top of the stripper is introduced into the carbamate condenser.Following reaction occurs

inside the stripper Carbamate condensor: Carbamate condenser is fed with overhead gaseous mixture from the top of thestripper, In this unit the gaseous mixture is condensed and absorbed by the carbamate solutioncoming from the medium pressure recovery stage. Heat liberated in the high pressure carbamatecondenser is used to generate low pressure steam. The gas and liquid from the carbamatecondensers are recycled to the reactor by gravity flow.2NH 3 + CO 2 NH 2 COONH 4 + heat H = -84 kJ/molNH 3(g) NH 3(l) scrubber: In the scrubber Ammonia and Carbon Dioxide coming from the reactor are absorbedto ammonia and ammonium carbamate solution which is going to Carbamate Condenser.