All Posts from January 28, 2014

The Andersons bring patent lawsuit

The Andersons have added Ferti Technologies Inc. of Saint-Michel, Canada, to a patent infringement suit initiated late last year. The infringement suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, involves three patents related to dispersible granular fertilizer technology. Ferti Technologies is the fourth party cited in the suit along Enviro Granulation LLC of South Carolina; Plant Science Inc. of Ontario, Canada and Harrell’s LLC of Lakeland, Florida. As of Jan. 27, the defendants had not filed answers to the complaint.

The Andersons said its investment in intellectual property is limited, however, but research and development is crucial to the success of its professional turf business and the company will defend its technology in this suit and others if necessary.

The Andersons introduced its dispersible granular technology in 2004 under the brand name Contec DG^®. It says Contec DG^® products serve golf courses nationwide.

Tampa NH3 settled for February

Major players have concluded ammonia business at Tampa at $415/mt CFR for February, down from January’s original $450/mt CFR. In the meantime, Mosaic had been able to buy a spot cargo at $415/mt CFR, putting pressure on Yara to lower its price ideas for February.

Dakota Gas approves urea plant in North Dakota

Dakota Gasification Company announced on Jan. 28 that its board of directors has approved the addition of a urea production facility at Dakota Gas’ Great Plains Synfuels Plant near Beulah, N.D. The board approval came at a special meeting on Jan. 27, the company said.

The project includes construction of a storage facility that will hold approximately 53,000 st of granular urea, as well as a new load-out facility for trucks and railcars with the capacity to load up to 110 railcars in a single shipment. The urea plant is scheduled for completion in early 2017, and will produce 1,100 st of urea daily. The new facility is projected to cost approximately $402 million.

Dakota Gas currently produces two other fertilizers – ammonia and ammonium sulfate (Dak Sul 45®) – at the Beulah facility. Urea, which requires anhydrous ammonia and carbon dioxide for production, will mark the 10th co-product for the Synfuels plant.

According to Paul Sukut, Dakota Gas interim CEO and general manager, urea has the highest nitrogen content of all solid fertilizers, but costs less to handle, store, and transport than other nitrogen-based fertilizers. “We are happy to build on the fertilizer products we already manufacture, and believe the addition of urea will bring more benefit to the agricultural community,” Sukut said.

The new facility will also produce diesel emission fluid (DEF), the 11th co-product for the Synfuels Plant. DEF is used to reduce NOx emissions in diesel engines, as mandated by the federal government on all new diesel engines. A 1.1-million gallon stainless steel storage tank will be constructed at the plant to store the DEF.

Dakota Gas first announced that it was considering a urea plant in Beulah in October 2012, when its board of directors approved funding to study the facility. This Front-End Engineering and Design (FEED) study was completed in October 2013.

Dakota Gas is a subsidiary of Basin Electric Power Cooperative, a consumer-owned, regional cooperative headquartered in Bismarck, N.D. The company’s $2.1 billion Great Plains Synfuels Plant near Beulah began operating in 1984, and produces pipeline-quality natural gas and related co-products from a coal gasification process. Average daily production of natural gas is about 153 million cubic feet, the majority of which is piped to Ventura, Iowa, for distribution in the eastern U.S.

The facility’s maximum annual production capacity for anhydrous ammonia and ammonium sulfate is approximately 400,000 st and 110,000 st, respectively. The Beulah facility also captures 2.5-3 million mt of carbon dioxide per year, which it supplies to the world’s largest carbon capture and storage project in Saskatchewan.