Polyphosphate-containing fluid fertilizers based on wet-process acid and wet-process acid-sulfuric acid mixtures

Conference · Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1984

OSTI ID:6917638

Mann, H C

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) developed and patented a pipe-reactor process that used low-conversion superphosphoric acid to produce a 10-34-0 grade liquid fertilizer that contained about 60 to 70% of the total P/sub 2/O/sub 5/ as polyphosphate. The process was accepted rapidly by the fluid-fertilizer industry and there are now about 125 commercial plants in operation throughout the United States using this technology. In the latter part of 1970, studies were begun to develop a process to use less expensive merchant-grade acid in a pipe reactor. The process that resulted was designed so that it could be retrofitted into the existing 10-34-0 process with some equipment changes. The product was a 9-32-0 grade suspension fertilizer containing about 20% of the total P/sub 2/O/sub 5/ as polyphosphate. In 1981, TVA began operation in a demonstration-scale unit with a design capacity of 20 tons of 9-32-0 suspension per hour. In addition to using the relatively inexpensive anhydrous ammonia and merchant-grade wet-process acid as raw materials, the process was designed to be energy efficient in that all of the heat required to vaporize the ammonia and preheat the merchant-grade acid was obtained from the process.

• Research Organization: National Fertilizer Development Center, Muscle Shoals, AL (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6917638
• Report Number(s): TVA/PUB-84/41; CONF-8404174-1; ON: DE84901596
• Resource Relation: Conference: TFI-TVA fertilizer technology workshop, Huntsville, AL, USA, 17 Apr 1984; Other Information: Portions are illegible in microfiche products
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

37 INORGANIC
ORGANIC
PHYSICAL AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
FERTILIZERS
PRODUCTION
AMMONIUM PHOSPHATES
FLOWSHEETS
PHOSPHATES
PHOSPHORIC ACID
PILOT PLANTS
SULFURIC ACID
TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY
AMMONIUM COMPOUNDS
DIAGRAMS
FUNCTIONAL MODELS
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
INORGANIC ACIDS
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PHOSPHORUS COMPOUNDS
US ORGANIZATIONS
400201* - Chemical & Physicochemical Properties