The commercial production of cannabis for medicinal purposes is expanding rapidly. This burgeoning market is opening up new opportunities for growers and fertilizer producers alike. Avishai Schneider , market development agronomist at Haifa Group, offers his advice for successful fertilization of this sensitive and difficult to grow crop.
Chris Heaton has joined Baker Engineering and Risk Consultants, Inc. as Chief Executive Officer. Chris replaces Quentin Baker as part of BakerRisk’s ownership and management succession plan. Baker will remain with BakerRisk, serving as chairman of the board, and will continue to support clients with incident investigations, engineering studies and research programs. Heaton has executive experience with risk engineering and consulting, fire protection engineering, life safety and incident investigation companies, and holds degrees in civil engineering and architecture.
Fluor’s case study of recently constructed ultra-sour gas treating facilities provides new information about the operation of DGA-based AGRUs. B. Lynch and C. Graham of Fluor Corporation discuss how using this knowledge and leveraging the recent improvements to process simulators in the gas sweetening space, Fluor has developed an efficient, flexible, and cost effective solution in the two-stage absorption process to maximise mercaptan removal from ultra-sour gases with minimal equipment.
Troubleshooting and root cause analysis help to identify and solve problems in the operation of nitric acid plants and to prevent future reoccurrences. Johnson Matthey, Casale and Sabin Metal Corporation discuss their approach to solving problems in nitric acid plants to improve plant reliability and efficiency and to avoid unplanned shutdowns, costly replacement of equipment and loss of production.
In spite of continuing safety concerns due to the Beirut explosion, and the rise of the use of urea as a nitrogen fertilizer, ammonium nitrate demand continues to increase in several key markets.
Falling costs for production of hydrogen by electrolysis are encouraging more serious consideration of using recovered carbon dioxide as a feedstock for chemicals and even fuels production.
Although amine solution foaming problems have been studied and reported extensively, direct correlations about the root causes of foaming have not been completely established. This article approaches the problems of foaming from a different perspective, rather than theoretical discussions, the topic is centred exclusively on Amine Experts’ field-related experiences with amine foaming episodes.
The Sulphur Institute (TSI) has announced the selection of Ron Olson as its agronomist. Olson has over 30 years of experience as an independent consulting agronomist as well as 15 years with Cargill and The Mosaic Company. His agronomic consulting company worked directly with farmers and agricultural retailers offering custom soil sampling and soil analysis, and crop management expertise. The company pioneered the implementation of using precision agriculture tools for taking soil samples on a 2.5 acre grid, converting that data to computer maps and linking that data to GPS/GIS technology to develop crop management programs to achieve maximum economic yields. With Cargill and Mosaic he served as Research and Development Manager and led the team that developed the MicroEssentials™ suite of products., which has grown to become the leading commercial sulphur enhanced fertilizer sold globally.
Maire Tecnimont subsidiary Tecnimont SpA has finalised its $350 million EPC contract with Egypt Hydrocarbon Corp. (EHC) for the construction of a new ammonia plant at Ain Sokhna. The preliminary contract was announced in September last year. The contract for the plant, which will produce 1,320 t/d of ammonia, also includes extensive utilities and offsite facilities. Project completion is scheduled for 36 months from the effective contract date, which will be triggered by financial closure of the project. Project finance is being arranged by the Italian export credit agency SACE and the US EXIM Bank. The ammonia will be used to feed an ammonium nitrate plant, already existing and in operation in the same industrial facility, also owned by EHC.
We report on how the fertilizer industry and individual companies are working to mitigate the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic.