terça-feira, 27 de setembro de 2011

Gypsum conversion

Crystallization seems to be simple?
It is not.
From Hemihydrate to Dihydrate, calcium sulfate passes 3 distinct steps.
Afected by composition, temperature, time, agitation, impurities, etc.
Not that easy!

terça-feira, 6 de setembro de 2011

Petrobras e Vale negociam nitrogenados de Araucária

Publicado em 31/08/2011 no http://www.gazetadopovo.com.br

A Vale Fertilizantes anunciou ontem ao mercado que vem mantendo tratativas preliminares com a Petrobras com relação a uma potencial operação envolvendo seus ativos nitrogenados no Complexo Industrial de Araucária (região metropolitana de Curitiba). Segundo comunicado ao mercado, até agora não há qualquer espécie de entendimento definitivo entre as partes, não tendo sido celebrado qualquer instrumento vinculativo que determine os termos e condições relativos à potencial operação. O interesse da Petrobras seria de que a Vale utilizasse a unidade de nitrogenados que a mineradora herdou da Fosfértil (empresa que adquiriu no ano passado) como moeda de troca para obter a prorrogação do contrato do arrendamento das minas de carnalita, minério do qual se extrai o potássio, em Sergipe.

segunda-feira, 5 de setembro de 2011

Os "junior players" no P&K no Brasil

MbAC é um lançamento de executivos da canadense Yamana Gold.
Aguia Resources é de origem australiana.
Torço para que os projetos em curso (a MbAC já está comprando uma unidade de Sulfúrico e uma de SSP para Arraias-TO) amadureçam rapidamente e com boas margens!

O ácido fosfórico em Santa Catarina

Imbituba já teve sua ICC...
Agora, nós os fosfateiros, sonhamos com a ativação da mina de Anitápolis e quiçá a produção local ou em municípios vizinhos de ácido fosfórico.
Dizem os colegas que trata-se de chaminé carbonatítica similar à de Cajati, sabidamente a mais pura da terra em temos de metais pesados e radionuclídeos.
Ótima para nutrição animal e humana.
Quem viver verá!

Water is a finite resource

We have to reduce, reuse and recicle water.
May be one day we will reduce to a few tons of water per ton of P2O5, but our usage is still very high.
Dégremont, Nalco, Ondeo, GE, Betz, Buckman, Veolia, Praxair, etc are at our side to develop a "dry" processing of phosphoric acid!

India phosphoric acid producers

India is home to around 13 phosacid plants.
City State Owner Capacity
Udyogmandal Kerala Fertilisers and Chemicals Travancore (FACT)
Ennore Tamil Nadu Coromandel Fertilizers
Fertilizernagar Gujarat Gujarat State Fertilizes Company
Kakinada Andra Pradesh Coromandel
Mumbai Maharashtra Pnadit (with Rhodia)
....and so on...

domingo, 4 de setembro de 2011

Phosphoric Acid WPA in India (in the begning of 90's)

FACT Udogmandal set up in 1960 the first commercial, wet phosphoric acid plant with an installed capacity of 8000 TPA of P2O5. The two decades thereafter saw a significant growth in the manufacture of phosphoric acid with installed capacity increasing to 2.00 lakh TPA of P2O5 by 1970 and further to 6.60 lakh TPA of P2O5 by the end of 1980.
Over the years, the size of plants also registered an increase, going upto 1.00 lakh TPA of P2O5. Paradeep Phosphates' plant,, which is under construction, has rated
capacity of 2.25 lakh TPA of P2O5
There are presently thirteen (13) wet phosphoric acid units in the country, out of which twelve are based on sulphuric acid route and one on hydrochloric acid route.
Two of the plants are closed because of problems of equipment breakdown. Out of the three(3) thermal phosphoric acid units in the country, two have discontinued production because of high electrical power requirement resulting in very high production cost.
With the commissioning of Paradeep Phosphates and Hindustan Fertiliser Corporation's plants, the total installed capacity will increase to about 9.151 lakh TPA of P2O5 by the year 1989-90.

(lakh is a Indian multiplier thah is equl to 100.0000!)

sexta-feira, 2 de setembro de 2011

Effluents are fertilizers?

From tipical calcium phosphates (mono, di and tri), some fluorides and fluosilicates to struvite, silicates and other phosphate or mixed salts could potentially be used as fertilizers...
You have to control toxicity, that is variable for soils, crop and its age, etc.
It is not simple, but will pay its research some day in some place.
Beside well stablished usages, new ones will appear.
It is a matter of time!
Time will tell!

South Africa

A friend of mine, Thomaz, said so many good things about Richards Bay and its Mhlathuze Water...
A state-owned water utility, was established in 1980 to design and construct a major regional water treatment plant and an offshore wastewater disposal system to service the growing town of Richards Bay in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. As a service provider and partly as part of its mandate, the organisation has increased its service delivery to local and regional municipalities, assisting the water service authorities to provide potable water to urban and rural communities. The organizations area of supply now covers 37 000 square kilometres in northern KwaZulu-Natal with assets in the region of R 3.1 billion.
Treat and serve water and collects and treat effluent, including the gypsum of Foskor.
Thomaz compared with Morocco OCP´s...
And we talk about eventually accepting a system like that in areas like northern Mozambique.
And I though it is quite acceptable!
But phosphogypsum should taken as a building material... once there there are almost no "normal" houses.
Resinated it could do great walls, if there are no radonium emanation.

Phosphate rock is like a woman

I really have discovered something at last.
But this poem and ideas were first wroten, in some foreword for another Pierre Becker´s textbook or else and was told by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, in The Yellow Wallpaper (1899).
Evereday is changing. Some paterns, but lots of changes.

"Through watching so much at night, when it changes so, I have finally found out.
The front pattern does move--and no wonder! The woman behind shakes it!
Sometimes I think there are a great many women behind, and sometimes only one, and she crawls around fast, and her crawling shakes it all over.
Then in the very bright spots she keeps still, and in the very shady spots she just takes hold of the bars and shakes them hard.
And she is all the time trying to climb through. But nobody could climb through that pattern--it strangles so; I think that is why it has so many heads.
They get through, and then the pattern strangles them off and turns them upside down, and makes their eyes white!
If those heads were covered or taken off it would not be half so bad."