Tittle

Designing of a Triple Super Phosphate (TSP) plant

Project definition
A TSP fertilizer Plant is to be set-up at Feni in Bangladesh having a capacity of 500 metric ton
(MT) of granular TSP per stream day, corresponding to 1,50000 MT of granular TSP per year
including all offsite, auxiliaries, utilities and supporting facilities.
Design basis: 500MTD TSP.
Site condition: We have chosen Feni as our plant location. Feni has a tropical climate. In Feni,
the wet season is hot, oppressive, and overcast and the dry season is warm, humid, and mostly
clear.
 Natural resources: Feni has a river called Feni River as natural resource.
 Temperature: Over the course of the year, the temperature typically varies
from 52°F to 91°F and is rarely below 47°F or above 96°F.
 Rainfall: Feni experiences extreme seasonal variation in monthly rainfall. The annual rainfall
is 2673 mm | 105.2 inch.
 Sky condition: The average percentage of the sky covered by clouds experiences extreme
seasonal variation over the course of the year.
 Relative humidity: Feni experiences extreme seasonal variation in the perceived humidity.
The average annual relative humidity ranges from 60% to 75%.
Site selection: The location surrounding a chemical plant can substantially influence its
construction costs and operating costs, and may affect long-term profitability. Thus it is
important to choose an appropriate location for every facility. Hence for the following facilities
we have chosen Feni as our TSP plant site:

 Raw materials are easily collected as transportation is easy.

 It has a good market for TSP as major population is engaged in agriculture.
 Climatic conditions are favorable of TSP production.
 Transportation of raw material is easy as it is comparatively nearer to the Chittagong port.
 Feni river will serve to fulfill the water demand.
 It will create alternative work place to the population as most of the population is engaged in
agriculture.
 As our plant will be environment friendly and there are a few industries in Feni so it will be
easier to get legal requirements.

Process selection: The proposed process route is a slurry granulation process. The main
advantages of the proposed process are:
 A simple flow-sheet without excess equipment which reduces investment and makes the
process easy to operate.
 The process is almost self-controlled.
 Excellent product quality.
 Increased density and hardness of the granules.
 Lower recycle ratio.
 Technology is environmentally friendly with reduced effluent emissions.
Protection of the environment is a top priority in this proposed design. The effluent removal and
control systems are designed to comply with local regulations or with EFMA BAT standards
related to the dust and fluorine emissions levels. The liquid effluents are minimized. The process
can be adapted to suit the client needs and constraints for liquid effluents discharge. The process
is ¨granulation-controlled¨ (not only controlled by the mass-and heat-balance). It uses the
layering or “onion skin” method of creating granules. In order to ensure a low recycle ratio at
high production rates, it is important that efficient screening and crushing equipment is selected.
This allows the recycle of ¨small size product¨ - not dust. Another feature of the process is the
formation of even-sized particles which is the key to low recycle. Because the process is
granulation–controlled, there is no need for recycle bins or any other control of the recycle. For
plant start-ups, product material may be recycled.

Raw materials:
Specifications of raw materials-
Rock Phosphate
Chemical ingredients Percentage
Moisture 2.00%(max)
Total Phosphate 32.95%(min)
Calcium Oxide 48-52%
Sulphate 0.7-1.9%
Silica 2.5-5%
Carbon-di-Oxide 5%

Phosphoric Acid
Elements Percentage
P2O5 48-50%
SO3 2-4%
Calcium Oxide 0.16-0.5%
Fe2O3 0.5-2.5%
Silica 0.12%(max)
F 0.35-1.5%
MgO 0.6-1%
Solid Content 2%
Na2O 0.01-0.02%
K2O 0.02-0.04%

Product list:
 Main Product: Triple Super Phosphate
 Triple Super Phosphate
Chemical ingredients Percentage
Total P2O5 46%
Free P2O5 3%
Available P2O5 43-44%
Moisture 5%
Sulfur -
Physical character Granular

Utility list:
Utilities Source
Cold Water From Heat Exchanger
Air Environment
Electricity National Grid
Demineralized Water Water treatment plant

Process description

Rock Phosphate Grinding:

The imported Rock phosphate is not uniform sized. In order to give it uniform size, it is sent to
grinding plant. Rock phosphate at first charged into hopper from storeroom. This rock phosphate
is conveyed to mill feed hopper through conveyer belt. In the way there is a magnetic separator
placed over the conveyer belt. In this stage, the metallic portion of the rock removed by magnet.
After magnetic separation, these rock phosphates weighed and sent to rock feeder bucket
elevator. Then rock phosphate feed to ball mill. Ball mill having ball of 50mm, 60mm, 70mm
diameter size ball for grinding the rock phosphate in uniform about 200 mesh. The ball made by
cast iron, mild iron, stainless steel. The ball mill of this plant rotated at 18 rpm. Furnace supplies
hot air to maintain temperature around 65°C and the moisture also removed from rock by passing
hot air. The balls hammer the rock phosphate turning to required form and wind pressure forces
it upwards. Outlet of ball mill sent to mill classifier. Dry air passed into the furnace and increases
the temperature of air about 270-350°C and it maintain the ball mill temperature around 65°C.
This air help the ball mill sent the grinding rock to mill classifier. Here, desired size (200mesh)
of rock gained and oversize rock are recycled to rock feeder by static classifier. Fine and uniform
size of rocks go to two rock cyclones and go down by centrifugal force. Fine rocks are collected
at rock silo. Air with dust rock recycled back to circulation fan and sent to four cyclones where
more rocks are collected. Bag filter used for filtration of dust air. Remaining dust air sent to the
stack. Rock phosphate of desired size is used to manufacturing TSP in TSP plant.
Reaction section:
The finely ground phosphate rock is fed to the stirred reactor T401 where it is mixed with
phosphoric acid from storage, and the recycled scrubbing liquor. The resulting reaction slurry is
circulated, homogenized and maintained in suspension by the agitator A401.
From the reactor T401, the slurry overflows to the slurry maturing vessel T402, where the
reaction proceeds. The vessel T402 is equipped with the agitator A402 and is maintained at the
same conditions prevailing in T401.
The reaction vessels T401 and T402 provide for the necessary residence time to achieve high
completion level of the reaction between the phosphate rock and the phosphoric acid. In order to
meet the quality standards related to water and citrate soluble P 2O5, the TSP product is stored for
curing for a period ranging between 1 to 3 weeks depending on phosphate rock quality before
final conditioning and shipping.
The reaction gases and vapors evolved from the reactor T401 and T402, are extracted and
directed towards the scrubbing section, where fluorine compounds abatement takes place.

Granulation:
The reaction slurry is pumped from T402, by the means of the pump P401 towards the slurry
sprayer X410 at the inlet of the granulator B410. The slurry spray is directed towards the curtain
formed by the recycled dry product from the screening station. A process of size enlargement of
the granules by layering takes place in the granulator. The rate of increase of granules size
depends on the recycle rate. The granules are discharged to the dryer B420.

Drying:
The granules are contacted co-current wise with hot air from the hot air generator F410. At the
exit of the dryer, the humidity of the granules is lowered. As fresh TSP, these granules contain
also free acid, which allows for continuation of reaction in the curing store. Dryer exit gases
entrain TSP fine particles which are largely recovered in the cyclones S420 and recycled with
screening TSP fines to the granulator.

TSP Screening and crushing:

From the outlet of the dryer B420, the product is directed to the screening station. The vibrating
screens S430 separate the product in three fractions according to granules size. The coarse
granules are removed by the primary sieve and directed through chutes to the coarse granules
crusher C430. They are subsequently discharged on the recycle conveyor M410. The granules
retained by the secondary sieve have the grain size specification of the product and are collected
in the double chute hopper X 430. Part of this on spec fraction is extracted by the production belt
conveyor W440, and directed to the product cooler E440 where their temperature is reduced, and
then handled towards the curing store. The remaining on spec product is discharged by gravity
on the recycle conveyor M410.

Gas scrubbing:
The objective of gas scrubbing is the abatement of dust and fluorine compounds before discharge
of gases in the atmosphere.
The main streams subjected to scrubbing are the reactor gas, the granulator gas, the dryer gas and
the plant de-dusting gas. The recovered fines in the scrubbing liquor are recycled towards the
reactor.
The scrubbing system is optimized according the phosphate rock and phosphoric acid quality and
for the best integration with the production process