Fertilizer International 500 Jan-Feb 2021
31 January 2021
Phosphates project listing 2021
PHOSPHATES PROJECT LISTING
Phosphates project listing 2021
Fertilizer International presents a global round-up of phosphate rock, phosphoric acid and finished phosphates projects.
Phosphate rock*
*Excluding China. Standalone, non-integrated projects only. At present, there are tens of junior phosphate mining projects globally. However, only capacity developments with a published feasibility study are listed here. In general, these projects have yet to secure the necessary finance and, consequently, none have committed to a firm construction schedule and start-up date currently. Africa is undoubtedly the region with the most potential for phosphate rock expansion – although large uncertainties over individual projects and their timescales remain. OCP Group is, however, pressing on with ambitious plans to increase phosphate rock capacity at Khouribga and Meskala in Morocco. The restart of Kropz’s Elandsfontein project in South Africa is dependent on its water permitting issues being resolved. Major expansions in phosphate rock capacity are also expected out to 2024 from established phosphate producers in Russia and Kazakhstan (Acron, EuroChem, PhosAgro), Brazil (Yara, Itafos) and Mexico (Fertinal). This extra supply will be largely consumed in integrated, downstream operations.
Phosphate fertilizer, phosphoric acid and integrated phosphate rock projects**
KEY FOR BOTH TABLES
FS Feasibility study complete
PL Planned
UC Under construction
C Project completed
n.a. Not available
DAP Diammonium phosphate
DCP Dicalcium phosphate
MAP Monoammonium phosphate
PPA Purified phosphoric acid
SSP Single superphosphate
TSP Triple superphosphate
**Excluding China. The International Fertilizer Association (IFA) expects various production investments by OCP Group to collectively add an additional four million t/a to Morocco’s finished phosphates capacity out to 2022. OCP is also pursuing large-scale joint venture projects in both Nigeria and India. The third phosphates mega project announced by Ma’aden and its partners should eventually ramp-up product capacity in Saudi Arabia by a further 3,260 t/a. In Egypt, WAPHCO is currently constructing a major phosphate production complex at Abu Tartur.
Phosphate technology and engineering profiles
JESA Technologies
JESA Technologies (JT), based in Lakeland, Florida, has proudly served the global phosphate industry for over a half century. The company, part of Worley Group, offers licensed technology to the phosphates industry covering the whole production process, from mine to market. The company is a leading licensor for three process steps in particular: phosphate rock beneficiation, phosphoric acid production and granular fertilizer manufacture.
Additionally, JT offers on-site pilot plants, for both beneficiation and phosphoric acid, supported by a fully equipped analytical laboratory. The ability to combine in-house technical and engineering design know-how – from mined rock all the way through to the finished product – with on-site pilot plants makes JT unique as a licensor.
Since its establishment in 1974, JT has been responsible for the design of over 150 process facilities for the phosphate fertilizer industry in 29 countries. The plants designed by JT include the largest single-train phosphate operations in the world. Notably, these include a phosphoric acid plant with a demonstrated capacity above 3,000 tonnes per day – plus numerous examples of DAP/NPK plants with capacities in excess of one million tonnes per year.
In addition to designing new plants, JT has an extensive track record in revamping operational plants. These revamps have successfully delivered a range of desired outcomes for customers – including increased production capacity, product quality improvements, energy savings and improved environmental performance.
Through its parent company Worley Group, JT is also backed by one of the world’s largest engineering and project delivery firms, with proven strengths in resource, energy, and infrastructure markets globally. JT and Worley’s combined capabilities offer clients a full spectrum of support covering all aspects of engineering, procurement, programme and construction management, as well as operations and maintenance.
JT’s extensive test facilities in Lakeland, Florida, include:
- A comprehensively equipped analytical laboratory
- A bench-scale metallurgical laboratory, capable of testing ore samples obtained from core drilling or pits
- A fully-equipped pilot plant capable of batch or continuous operation
- A continuous phosphoric acid pilot plant.
These test facilities make a vital contribution to feasibility studies. By developing process design data, they enable JT to offer its customers process guarantees. They are also engaged in contract research for clients.
Two case studies of phosphate industry projects recently awarded to JT are provided below:
Client: Verdant Minerals Ltd
Location: Northern Territory, Australia
Project: Ammaroo phosphate project: dihydrate phosphoric acid pilot plant testing.
Verdant is proposing to develop the Ammaroo phosphate project – the largest JORC-compliant phosphate rock resource in Australia and one of the world’s largest undeveloped phosphate deposits. In the project’s initial development phase, phosphate rock concentrate and associated merchant-grade phosphoric acid (MGA) will be produced for export to Asian markets through the Port of Darwin.
The proposed phosphate fertilizer complex will produce a high-quality MGA product utilising the most modern equipment and technologies available. These must also provide optimal environmental safeguards. The project’s phosphoric acid production capacity is initially set at approximately 500,000 t/a P2 O5 , equivalent to 1,600 t/d.
Client: Ma’aden
Location: Ras Al Khair, Saudi Arabia
Project: Front-end engineering design (FEED) for two large-scale granular fertilizer plants
JT has been selected as the licensor for a major granular fertilizer project as part of Phase 1 of Ma’aden’s ‘Phosphate 3’ mega project. Two large-scale granulation plants, with a total annual production capacity of two million tonnes, will be designed to produce over 25 different fertilizer grades.
As licensor, JT will be involved throughout the life of the project – all the way through from technology and design to staff training and then plant commissioning and start-up, supporting the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor. JTs’ mission is to provide the client with reliable, efficient designs that demonstrate the excellence of its expertise and unrivalled leadership in the phosphate industry.
TOMRA: cutting the cost of phosphates processing
The use of TOMRA sorting machines at a major new phosphate mining and processing operation is showing how phosphorus can be extracted from ore with greater environmental and economic efficiency.
Transforming phosphate rock into a high-quality and commercially-usable concentrate can be costly, logistically-complex and technically-demanding. Fortunately, the introduction of innovative and pioneering sorting technology is now helping to improve the efficiency of phosphate fertilizer production.
Indeed, over the last two years, the installation of TOMRA sorting machines at a new large-scale phosphates mining and processing complex in Saudi Arabia has shown how it is possible to cut production costs – while at the same time turning traditionally discarded waste into usable phosphate.
The massive complex, located in the remote north of the Kingdom, is run by the Ma’aden Wa’ad al Shamal Phosphate Company (MWSPC), an $8 billion joint venture between Saudi mining giant Ma’aden, Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) and US-based Mosaic, a leading international fertilizer producer. The successful completion of the MWSPC project in 2018 has turned Saudi Arabia into the second-largest phosphate producer in the Middle East.
The biggest challenge at the MWSPC plant – in common with many other phosphate operations around the world – is removing significant amounts of unwanted silica, also known as flintstone or chert. This needs to be eliminated from run-of-mine material to improve its quality and ensure that phosphate rock concentrates are suitable for downstream chemical processing.
This challenge is even tougher for MWSPC. That’s because contaminants are traditionally removed from phosphate ore using large quantities of water (and chemicals). Yet this is not possible at the company’s arid inland desert location due to the lack of a natural rain-fed water supply.
TOMRA therefore collaborated closely with the designers of the MWSPC plant to find a way of reducing water (and electricity) consumption in downstream production processes. The installation of high-capacity TOMRA sorting machines emerged as the most viable and practical option. These machines are capable of efficiently identifying and ejecting unwanted silica from large volumes of phosphate feed materials.
Following their installation, TOMRA’s XRT (X-Ray Transmission) machines are now pre-processing more than half of the total 13.5 million tonnes of phosphate ore handled by the MWSPC plant every year. Running at a rate of 1,800-2,000 tonnes per hour, the XRT machines recognise and separate materials according to their specific atomic density. Advantageously, this process is completely dry and avoids the need for wet, water-based cleaning of materials.
The sorting machines have performed remarkably well at the MWSPC plant, delivering large efficiency gains and cost savings.
“Now that this plant has been running for two years, the effectiveness of XRT sorting is clear,” comments Jens-Michael Bergmann, TOMRA’s area sales manager for Europe, MENA and India. “By making it possible to remove 98 percent or more of liberated silica contaminants, XRT has reduced the workload and costs of crushing by about 75 percent, reduced the costs of milling by 45 percent, and reduced water consumption by 45 percent.”
He adds: “What’s more, the ability to reduce the size of the flotation plant has saved millions of dollars in construction costs, and continues to save about $10 million per year in the cost of flotation reagents alone.”
XRT sorting technology can perform equally well at improving the phosphate-processing efficiencies of many other operations globally. That’s the main lesson from the successful installation of TOMRA sorting machines at the MWSPC plant – in some of the most hostile working conditions on earth.
Prayon Technologies (PRT)
Prayon Technologies (PRT) is the technology arm and subsidiary of parent company Prayon s.a. With experience dating back more than 60 years, PRT is a global leader in phosphoric acid production technology.
Uniquely, Prayon is both a leading commercial manufacturer of phosphoric acid and its derivatives – purified acid, technical- and food-grade phosphates – and a licensor of phosphoric acid production technology. This provides the Belgium-headquartered company with considerable advantages when it comes to understanding the needs of its technology customers.
A major proportion of the worldwide phosphoric acid production relies on Prayon’s process technology. In fact, Prayon Technologies has designed, developed and helped construct more than 135 phosphoric acid plants in more than 30 different countries globally. These plants consume more than 40 different types of phosphate rock and have P2 O5 production capacities ranging from 25 tonnes up to 2,000 tonnes per day.
Prayon offers flexible production technologies able to respond optimally to the requirements of phosphoric acid producers, offering:
- Reduced energy consumption
- Increased yield
- Lower production costs
- Excellent environmental performance.
Prayon Technologies essentially offers two types of service: technology licensing and consultancy. Its licensing activities cover:
- Phosphoric acid production – including a full range of processes (DH, HH, DA-HF, CPP, PH2 ) producing hemihydrate or dihydrate calcium sulphate with one or two filtration step(s)
- Phosphoric acid concentration
- Fluorine recovery
- Gas scrubbing systems – for F, dust and H2 S reduction
- Phosphoric acid purification – SO3 , Cd, As, F, Al2 O3 , Fe2 O3 and MgO reduction technologies
- Phosphogypsum purification
- Uranium recovery from phosphoric acid
- DCP production from low-grade rock and dilute sulphuric acid – the GetMoreP process.
Prayon’s consultancy activities cover:
- Audits of existing plants with specific objectives
- Phosphate rock evaluations
- Plant operator training.
GEA Group
GEA is emerging as a leading technology and equipment provider to the phosphates industry. The Dusseldorfheadquartered group is one of the world’s largest production technology and equipment suppliers and employs about 18,500 people across the globe. GEA generates around 70 percent of its revenues from the food and beverages sector – and is the technology leader in this market.
With more than 100 years of experience in crystallisation alone, the company offers a range of production plant technologies able to meet the diverse requirements of the phosphate and fertilizer industries. They include:
- Evaporators
- Crystallisers
- Membrane filtration units
- Centrifugal decanter and separators
- Spray and fluid bed dryers for drying crystals or granulation.
GEA specialises in the production of water-soluble monoammonium phosphate (MAP) from phosphoric acid. The innovative production technology offered by the company is capable of manufacturing high-quality water-soluble MAP from lower-quality merchant grade acid (MGA). This ground-breaking process reduces opex and/or capex costs as it avoids the need to purchase more expensive purified phosphoric acid (PPA), or integrate a purification line within the fertilizer production plant.
GEA’s process firstly produces a clarified liquid stream after an initial reaction and filtration step. Dry, pure and highly water-soluble MAP crystals are eventually generated as an end-product, after a series of further crystallisation and purification steps. Waste from the various purification and filtration steps, in the form of sludges or purges, still contains some valuable P2 O5 . This can be captured by further processing – for example, via the fertilizer plant’s blending or granulation units.
GEA’s manufacturing process can typically deliver a yield (i.e. the amount P2 O5 recovered to the crystalline end-product vs the P2 O5 contained in the feed acid) of between 50-70 percent. The exact yield depends on the impurity levels in the MGA and the purity/ quality requirements (non-soluble content) of the final MAP product.
GEA’s technology for water-soluble MAP production has already been successfully implemented by an Eastern European customer. The new plant avoided considerable capital and operational expenditure by allowing non-purified MGA to be used as the phosphoric acid feed, while still delivering a pure MAP fertilizer with a high market value as the end-product. As a fertilizer, the crystalline end-product offers the following key benefits:
- High-quality fully water-soluble MAP (typically 12-61-0) with a low insoluble content
- Avoids clogging problems on spray systems and pumps
- Suitable for fertigation, foliar applications and the production of fertilizer blends and nutrient solutions
- Low turbidity after dissolution in water
- High-throughput processing
- Free of chlorine, sodium and other deleterious elements
- Moderate solution pH – safer and less corrosive
- Access to excellent laboratory backup, support and expertise.
Tenova Advanced Technologies (TAT)
Tenova Advanced Technologies (TAT) offers phosphate beneficiation process development and proprietary technologies for the purified phosphoric acid industry, complemented by in-house laboratory and pilot plant facilities.
Tenova provides a full suite of technologies for the beneficiation of phosphate rock. Its project services range from process development through to feasibility studies and complete turnkey solutions.
Tenova is proud of its modern in-house analytical laboratory and pilot plant capabilities for purified phosphoric acid (PPA), solvent extraction (SX), and wet and dry mineral beneficiation. These state-of-the-art R&D facilities are able to handle a wide range of phosphate rock materials, including:
- Sedimentary and igneous ores
- Carbonaceous and/or siliceous gangue
- Terrestrial and marine deposits
- Low-grade phosphates
- High impurity phosphates
- Reclamation of phosphate from tailings. Tenova also provides the full spectrum of technologies required for producing PPA from phosphate rock and wet-process phosphoric acid (WPA) – including the SX, acid purification and concentration stages. These are well-suited to the production of high-quality food- or technical-grade phosphoric acid.
Ensuring reliable plant design requires continuous monitoring and the collation of information during process development. Each successive process stage has the following objectives:
- Pre-treatment: this stage removes common impurities such as sulphates, cadmium, fluorides and arsenic
- Purification: this is achieved via proprietary SX processes and involves the selection of the optimal solvent
- Post-treatment: this stage brings the product up to final specification through concentration, solvent recovery and the reduction of total organic carbon.
Tenova has an extensive track record of project implementation built on years of experience and know-how. The company adopts a step-by-step approach to project development. This guarantees the fulfilment of customer requirements and ensures successful project delivery. Selected project references are provided below.
Phosphate beneficiation:
- The Mosaic Company, Ona Phosphate, Florida: Process development, high magnesium ore
- Afrig SA, phosphate project, Senegal: one million t/a concentrator, process development
- Cominco Resources, Hinda phosphate project, Republic of Congo: four million t/a concentrator, process development (lab & pilot), ore variability study and pre-feasibility study
- Ma‘aden Al Jalamid and Umm Wu‘al projects, Saudi Arabia: 4.5 million t/a and five million t/a concentrators, process development (lab & pilot), basic engineering (BE) and front-end engineering design (FEED)
Purified phosphoric acid and chemical processing:
- Wengfu Phosphates, China: 100,000 t/a (P2 O5 ) food-grade PPA from WPA, process development (lab & pilot), BE and FEED, SX design and supply
- Ma‘aden, Wa’ad Al Shammal, Saudi Arabia: 50,000 t/a (P2 O5 ) food grade PPA from WPA, process development (lab & pilot), BE and FEED, SX design and supply
- EuroChem, Karatau, Kazakhstan: Phosphate chemical complex process selection study.
