K+S Group, Kassel, Germany, said Jan. 17 that it has commissioned the new kainite crystallization and flotation facility (KCF) at the Hattorf site in Germany. The facility will enable additional reusable resources to be obtained from saline solutions that could not be used until now and will simultaneously reduce the wastewater volume at the Werra plant by 1.5 million cubic meters, or about 20 per cent, annually. The company said with the related volume of capital expenditure at 180 million euros, the KCF facility is the largest individual water protection project to date.
K+S said the process allows for additional reusable resources to be obtained from saline solutions that could not be used in the past and which had to be disposed of. It will be possible to produce about 260,000 mt of saleable products (potassium chloride, magnesium sulfate) from them.