Barbara Cucchiella and Wilfried Dirkx, Stamicarbon, the Netherlands, discuss trends in finishing technologies, including larger capacities, lower costs and higher efficiencies.
FOLLOWING THE TRENDS A
s urea melt plants grow in capacity, so does the need for finishing technologies with higher capacities. Although new technology developments have taken place more in granulation than in prilling, the latter is certainly still relevant but will not be discussed in this article. Stamicarbon, the innovation and licensing company of the Maire Tecnimont Group, has practical experience with both finishing technologies, which serve different markets. The decision to go for granulated product instead of prilled product is mainly driven by the interest in export production. Granules offer a higher strength and better handling and shipping capabilities compared to prilled product, so the construction of urea granulation plants can be found
in countries with low feedstock cost areas and options to export the granulated urea product.
Initial granulation design After the initial development activities in granulation technology conducted in the 1970s, the first test facility was contracted in 1998 in Belarus, where a small granulation unit of 280 tpd was completely converted to the Stamicarbon LAUNCHTM FINISH Granulation Design. Further scaling up took place in Canada, where two existing granulation lines of 625 tpd were converted to the company’s design. The first grassroot plant with a capacity of 2000 tpd was started up in June 2006 in Egypt. From then on, almost 20 plants with different capacities have been licensed, designed and put into operation. 37
