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BMH offers the complete handling package

Summary

Fertilizers and associated raw materials account for a considerable share of business for BMH Marine, and the company's Siwertell ship unloaders and conveying systems can be found at fertilizer ports and terminals throughout the world. To date, more than 200 Siwertell units are working hard for bulk operators, and the orders continue to come in. These latest developments are reported here.

Abstract

As a dedicated supplier of specialist bulk handling equipment, BMH Marine AB offers six main product lines:

  • Ship unloaders
  • Shiploaders
  • Self-unloaders
  • Conveying systems
  • Terminal systems
  • After-sales and other supporting services.

Since 1974, BMH Marine has developed, designed and delivered its range of ship unloaders under the Siwertell brand-name. These deal with dry bulk cargoes, with capacities ranging from 200 t/h to more than 2,000 t/h. Siwertell continuous ship unloaders are based on screw technology, and offer a totally enclosed conveyor line to ensure dust-free operation. They are avail­able in road-mobile, port-mobile, rail-mounted, ship-based and stationary versions. More than 200 Siwertell unloaders have been delivered to customers throughout the world for the discharge of fertilizers, chemicals, cement, coal, grain, and other bulk products. Customers have regularly returned with repeat orders, and some have bought as many as 12 units.

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From ship to truck to farmer

Summary

Nectar Group has specialised in the development of innovative and cost-effective technology for handling bulk and bagged fertilizers. During the past 30 years, the company has established a truly global presence, spearheaded by its COMPAC 140 mobile bagging system.

Abstract

Nectar Group is celebrating 30 years of providing innovative and cost-effective solutions for cargo handling requirements in the fertilizer and other dry bulk sectors. “We now lead the field with our knowledge and expertise,” said Daniel Greenin, Marketing Director. Nectar offers a full range of sophisticated bagging, lightening, bulk handling, expediting and consultancy services in numerous locations throughout the world. At the last count, Nectar has worked at 117 ports in 66 different countries and has handled in excess of 18 million tonnes of cargo.

Nectar’s involvement in handling bulk fertilizers can range from the positioning of Nectar’s own mobile bagging equipment to handle single cargoes through to ext­ended leases or sales of equipment and to joint ventures with port authorities and major local partners. The company also specialises in the development of bulk handling terminals, including silos and the provision of flat storage. Nectar can also provide management and operating services at these terminals.

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Sackett offers a total package

Summary

A. J. Sackett & Sons Co. has been designing bulk material systems tailored for the needs of the fertilizer industry since 1897, pioneering much of the technology that is familiar today. This review gives an idea of the extent of Sackett's products and services.

Abstract

AJ Sackett & Sons Co. has one of the most illustrious pedigrees in the industry, having been foun­ded in 1897. The company pioneered the development of much of the equipment technology that is fundamental to fertilizer manufacture and handling throughout the world. Based in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, A. J. Sackett & Sons enjoys wide renown for the quality of its system designs and the ruggedness and dependability of its equipment.

A. J. Sackett & Sons has a dedicated team of specialist engineers who design and manufacture the following categories of engineered systems:

  • Granulation systems for producing high-quality granular NPK fertilizers
  • Dryers and coolers
  • Conditioning systems
  • Conveying systems
  • Blending systems
  • Calciners.

Sackett designs a family of rotary dryers, calciners, granulation drums and coolers. Some Sackett dryers remain in use after over 60 years of intensive service.

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Methylene urea shows respect for the environment

Summary

Kemira Specialty Crop Care is a division of Kemira Agro Oyj, and is at the forefront of the company's Grow-How marketing concept. Its range of products for high added-value crops includes the Enduro line of controlled-release fertilizers, as described here.

Abstract

For many years, the arguments for putting agriculture on a more rational and sustainable basis have gathered pace, with particular attention being paid towards curbing the unrestrained use of chemical inputs and fertilizers in ­par­ticular. Concern about the environment focuses in particular on the effects of intensive cultivation on the water table, and has led governments and agricultural organisations to devote increasing efforts to curtail nitrate losses in the soil. Governments can choose between several methods of achieving this goal, but most often resort to recommending reductions in the application of inputs, sometimes imposing further constraints through the taxation of fertilizers, especially nitrogen fertilizers.

In addition to these environmental constraints, account should also be taken of the economic aspects of farming. Why pay for large tonnages of nitrogen fertilizers when a large proportion of the nutrients will be leached into the soil before being taken up by the plant? As a result, throughout the world, for both ecological and economic reasons, it is becoming ever more important to take a critical look at the fertilizers and other inputs entering the soil.

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Utilising ­phosphogypsum: how feasible?

Summary

Phosphogypsum can be (and to a small extent is) used in building products where regulations permit and the market exists. As disposal into the environment becomes more troublesome and more expensive, utilisation is beginning to seem more attractive.

Abstract

One of the most critical aspects of phosphoric acid manufacture by the “wet process” is the production of waste calcium sulphate. On account of the sheer scale of its production – a 1,000-t/d P2O5 phosphoric acid plant ­produces upwards of 5,500 t/d of calcium sulphate – it can never be disposed of into the environment without ill effects, visible or invisible or both. Disposal techniques vary all over the world and each method has some environmental impact.

Calcium sulphate is a very low-value material at the best of times, principally because it has a very low intrinsic chemical energy. In the past, in less economically stringent times, when sulphur was not easily available in all parts of the world and fossil fuels were much less expensive than they are now, calcium sulphate was occasionally used as a raw material for sulphuric acid production. But the process ate up energy, it was capital-intensive and it was very dirty, even by the much more liberal environmental standards of those times, so it was never very widely used.

Apart from a limited amount of use as a soil amendment, the only potentially universal volume use for by-product calcium sulphate is in making building materials – as an additive for controlling the setting rate of Portland cement and as the basis of building plaster and prefabricated plaster-based products. In that market it has to vie with a very well-established competitor, natural gypsum: a plentiful and easily-mined mineral which requires very little further treatment before use. Only one major economy, Japan, which has no indigenous calcium sulphate resources, has ever had a real incentive to look at alternative sources of supply.

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