MIXED

FERTILZERS
 NPK FERTILIZER
 There are total 60 elements which facilitates the proper growth of
plants but three basic elements Nitrogen, phosphorous and
potassium is essential to all.
 So a mixed fertilizer providing these three elements at a time is
called NPK fertilizer.
 It is also called compound or Complex fertilizer.
 Example : nitrophosphate(NP fertilizer)
 This fertilizer is manufactured in granular as well as in powder
form, but the powder form has some disadvantages like caking, non-
uniformity during spreading etc.
 So, it is generally produced in granular form which is free-flowing
and easy to apply.
 Advantages
 It provides all the three basic neutrients required in a single
fertilizer i.e ( N,P,K )
 This fertilizer is useful in the production of rice crop and gardening
purposes.
 Methods of production
NPK fertilizers can be produced in different ways:-

 Mechanical blending of multi-nutrient components

 Ammonium phosphate/ammonium sulfate-based NPK fertilizers
 Nitrophosphate-based NPK fertilizers (mixed acid route)
Ammonium phosphate/ammonium sulfate-
based NPK fertilizer

Stages involved :

 Processing of raw materials

 Granulation

 Drying & cooling

 Screening
 Unit process in reaction tube

 Phosphoric acid or a mixture of phosphoric and sulphuric

acids is neutralized in the pipe reactors with gaseous or
liquid ammonia. Resultantly di-ammonium phosphate and
some mono-ammonium phosphate is formed.
2NH3 + 2H3PO4 (NH4)2HPO4 + NH4H2PO4

Decompositon of some di-ammonium phosphate also takes

place.
(NH4)2HPO4 NH4H2PO4 + NH3
 Some of the ammonia also reacts with sulfuric acid, to
form ammonium sulfate.
NH3+H2SO4 (NH4)2SO4

For the potassium content, potassium chloride is added in

the granulator through the solid feeder.
 Granulation

 Nutrients are introduced in the granulator from solid feeder.

Slurry is poured from the top of the tank. Hot gasses are
blown counter currently. As a result granules are formed,
having some moisture having high temperature.
 Drying & cooling

 From the granulator, granules are sent to dryer, which absorbs

the moisture from the granules to prevent caking.

 Further it is sent to the cooler which reduces its temperature.

 Screening

 From cooler , granules are sent for screening , from which

granules are screened into :
 Oversized granules
 Onsize granules
 Undersized granules
Oversized are sent to chain mill and are converted to onsize
granules and stored.
Undersized are recycled & sent to the recycle feeder.
Mixed acid route
 Stages involved

 Acidulation
 Ammoniation
 Addition of KCl
 Spheroidization
 Screening
 Coating
 Acidulation

 Phosphate rock is introduced through hopper into the first two

acidulation reactors where nitric acid with some proportion of
sulfuric acid is introduced.
 Nitric acid does the acidulation as:
Ca5F(PO4)3 + 10HNO3 3H3PO4+ 5Ca(NO3)2+ HF
 Some of phosphate rock also reacts with sulfuric acid
2Ca5F(PO4)3 + 7H2SO4 + 17H2O 3CaH4(PO4)2.H2O +
7CaSO4.2H2O + 2HF
 Ammoniation

 Here we introduce phosphoric acid and gaseous ammonia into

the next four reactors.
Following reaction takes place in ammoniation reactor :
H3PO4 + NH3 (NH4)2HPO4
(NH4)2HPO4 NH4H2PO4 + NH3

 Here some unreacted calcium nitrate will react with acidified

ammonia and form ammonium nitrate.
3Ca(NO3)2 + 3H3PO4 + 3NH3 2CaHPO4 + 4NH4NO3
 Addition of KCl

 For potassium nutrients, potassium chloride is added in

the slurry mixing tank and it reacts with ammonium
nitrate:
NH4NO3 + KCl NH4CL + KNO3
and it is sent to the spherodizer by slurry feed pump.
 Spherodization

 Spherodization is carried out in spherodier which consists

of a round disc with a vertical shaft spinning at high speed
at the bottom of cylindrical chamber.
 When the slurry is charged into the spherodizer, it moves
to the end of spinning plate by centrifugal forces. By the
contact with the plate, the slurry droplets becomes hard
which are gradually rounded by the collisions with the
drum wall and cools down.
 Screening
 The granules produced in the spherodizer are send to the
multiple screens of different mesh numbers where the
onsize particles move towards the coater while oversize
particles are crushed in pulverizer and again send to the
spherodizer with the fine particles.
 Coating

 A coating is a surface treatment applied to

solid fertilizers.
 Coatings can be liquid, solid, thermoplastic.
 The function of a coating may be to:

 Control dust emission

 Minimize caking (bag set, pile set)
 Enhance flowability
 Minimize moisture pickup
 To stabilize the surface
 To enhance appearance
 Coating agent
 Polysulfone was used for a coating preparation for soluble
NPK granular fertilizer in controlled-release fertilizer
formulations.
 The coating structure controls the diffusion of the
elements from the interior of the fertilizer granule.
 In addition, coating of fertilizers leads to improvement of
handling properties.