Apache Nitrogen Products Inc., Benson, Ariz., is investing $5.5 million in upgrades to its Arizona prill plant, according to CEO Bob Cashdollar, who refers to the plan as a prill quality and operability project. “We’re replacing the dry end of the prill ammonium nitrate process with state-of-the-art equipment,” Cashdollar told Green Markets.
Cashdollar said the old prill process had reliability issues that resulted in moisture problems, which wasted product since nitrate absorbs moisture during storage. “As a sufficient amount of moisture is absorbed from the ambient air, change can occur in the product,” he noted. Apache is further reducing the moisture by installing a process that adds a wax coating on the product. Prills are small-sized, low-moisture, porous spheres that have a lower density than agricultural grade ammonium used for fertilizer.
Cashdollar said the prill upgrades won’t have an effect on the production of agricultural fertilizer. Approximately 40 percent of the liquid ammonium nitrate (LAN) that the company produces is converted into liquid fertilizers or sold to the mining industry for producing blasting agents. The remaining 60 percent of the LAN goes to the prill plant, where the water is boiled off, concentrating the solution to roughly 97 percent strength. The solution is then pumped to the top of a 220-foot tower and forced through spray heads. Finally, the liquid is formed into spheres, or prills.
Apache’s nitrogen-based fertilizer solutions are used extensively throughout the fall and winter months to grow vegetables in the region around Yuma, Ariz., and also in the Imperial, Santa Maria, and Salinas Valleys of southern California, and the Coachella area of Mexico.
Apache ammonium nitrate capacity and UAN capacity are 200,000 st/y and 145,000 st/y, respectively, according to the International Fertilizer Development Center.