Tag: RATE

The phosphate industry, the dominant consumer of sulphuric acid worldwide, has grown to its present size on the back of fertilizer consumption. And while this has seen considerable growth over the past decades, especially in countries like China, India and Brazil, it has generally been fairly steady and – subject to the annual vagaries of weather and the commodity cycle – relatively predictable. However, the world economy is now in the throes of a major transformation towards less carbon intensive generation and use of energy, and that is disrupting many markets, including that for phosphates.

Paradeep Phosphates Limited (PPL) and Mangalore Chemicals & Fertilizers Limited (MCFL) have agreed to merge.

We review potash mining and mineral processing methods. Advances in equipment technology and major project investments are highlighted.

Specialty fertilizer products represent a small volume, high value segment of the overall fertilizer market that’s been growing at around four percent per annum in recent years. Economic, environmental, regulatory and agronomic imperatives are driving up their adoption – and an overall shift from volume to value in the fertilizer market.

Biostimulants are emerging as mainstream products with major fertilizer producers – including Yara, Mosaic, Fertiberia and ICL – launching their own biostimulant lines and expanding production capabilities. Smaller innovative companies, meanwhile, such as Azotic and Fyteko, remain the mainstays of the sector and are continuing to being new products to market. Other players such as Den Nouden/GrowSolutions are targeting the expansion of organic fertilizers.

We look at current progress towards the greater use of recovered phosphorus, and whether there are lessons to learn from the success of the fast-growing carbon capture industry. We also highlight two pioneering European companies, EasyMining and Glatt, who are racing to bringing recovered phosphorus products to market.

The US is experiencing a new boom in nitrogen projects, with a number of carbon capture ammonia plants under development.

Catalyst development for nitric acid plants is strongly dependent on operating pressures and nitrogen loading levels. Dr Hadi Nozari of Johnson Matthey provides a review of some key catalyst design principles, emphasising the critical role of operating pressure in catalyst selection and highlighting the innovative contributions of Johnson Matthey in advancing catalyst technology for ultra-high-pressure ammonia oxidation in nitric acid plants.

Low carbon intensity hydrogen and ammonia production schemes from KBR, Air Liquide, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Casale and Johnson Matthey.

Cobalt-molybdenum (CoMo) catalysts are integral components of tail gas units (TGUs), playing a vital role in reducing harmful sulphur dioxide (SO2 ) emissions arising from Claus sulphur recovery units. Effective activation of these catalysts is essential for their optimal performance. The consequence of sulphiding at low temperatures and atmospheric pressure in low temperature TGUs is to compromise effectiveness of catalyst activation. In the first part of this two-part article, Michael Huffmaster , Consultant, explores CoMo catalyst activation at low pressure, focusing on sulphiding reaction pathways and the impact of temperature and the composition of the sulphiding media on reaction kinetics, specifically the concentration of H2 , H2 S, and H2 O.