Mineral Fertilizer Production With The Pelletizing Disc SCARABAEUS© For Organic Farming

While in the past two hectares were sufficient to feed two persons, in 2030 the same area will have to feed six persons. Thus, an increase of the yield of the agriculture area is necessary and only achievable with continuous re-feeding the soil with macro- and micronutrients, so called fertilizing. In the same period, the use of mineral fertilizers has increased sixfold.

Besides light, carbon dioxide, water and oxygen, the macronutrients like nitrogen for plant growth, phosphorus for photosynthesis and rooting, potassium for water absorption capacity and robustness of the plant are essentially. Apart from these, calcium is an important component for soil improvement and for functionality and stability of the cell membrane. Sulphur is a key component for production of proteins, vitamins and enzymes. Magnesium as an important component of Chlorophyll is relevant for plant photosynthesis. Finally, micronutrients as iron, zinc, copper, boron, manganese, silicon, molybdenum, sodium, cobalt and chlorine are relevant for plant grow and flourish, as well.

Nevertheless, through each harvest, these important nutrients are extracted from the soil. Using different fertilizer types return them back into the soil and maintain constant yields. In this view, classifying fertilizers isn´t clear and easy task. The leading experts categorize those in organic fertilizers, mineral fertilizers and chemical fertilizers. HAVER & BOECKER NIAGARA delivers equipment for production all those essential resources.

 

Feeding the world still means use of chemical fertilizers, mostly nitrogen based. In more and more popular sustainable bio farming, those fertilizers are not allowed. Almost exclusively un-processed natural rock flours are permitted to be used as mineral resource. However, in order to meet the increasing requirements for support the sustainable food sourcing and to increase the soil fertility, which result from the Nitrate Directive, the Fertilization Ordinance and the Climate Protection Plan, among other things, there is a growing demand on new solutions for the preparation, handling and demand-oriented application of agricultural organic fertilizers.

Since its establishment this important topic is a part of HAVER ENGINEERING´s daily business: “Within our advanced testing equipment and worldwide proven pelletizing technology, we are presenting new findings on the treatment and utilization of different type of fertilizers in compliance with the legal framework and supporting organic farming. Using our know-how the farmers will be able successful to handle with the agriculture challenges of the future such as longer periods of prohibition for spreading, limiting the application of nitrogen, reducing ammonia and nitrous oxide emissions and the resulting need to expand storage capacities”, said Dr. Jan Lampke, the Head of Sales and Projects at HAVER ENGINEERING. Those findings help HAVER ENGINEERING to optimize the mineral combination which supplies the plants with nutrients, or the structure and shape of the fertilizer pellets to improve the flight behavior when the pellets are spread. In many raw material processing plants rock flour is produced from dedusting systems, which is also suitable for the production of fertilizers or soil improvement. Depending on the source rock (limestone, diabase, phonolite etc.) and their natural mineral composition, these materials are predestined for applications in organic farming.

Driven from the vision for optimization of its equipment for producing of bio-active mineral fertilizers and supporting the developing of bio farming, the customer of us, who is producing fertilizers in Australia, founded out about our innovative processing systems for fertilizer industry and directly contacted us. The requirements made on a pelletizing disc were very high: In addition to a significant capacity increase from 7.7 to 15.4 t/h, it had to improve product homogeneity, as well as product quality. Figuring out that the biological mineral fertilizer is a material mix and every pellet contains all components of the mineral resources, we developed individual solution for our customer.

Owing to the complexity of the processes, the production of mineral fertilizers by means of the pelletizing drum proved to be increasingly complicated and highly inefficient due to the high volume of undersized and oversized pellets beyond the specified product range. After direct contact from our customer, we quickly agreed that test runs were required to provide a basis for further discussion and for dimensioning the system components. In cooperation with HAVER ENGINEERING, a test concept was generated to investigate the suitability for pelletizing. In the R&D Center of HAVER ENGINEERING agglomeration tests with material from our customers fertilizer facility were performed. The great results convinced the customers of the capabilities of the SCARABAEUS© system. With up to 80 M.-%, the share of usable fertilizer pellets, produced in the tests under laboratory conditions, exceeded the expectations.

Based on the results of the test runs from HAVER ENGINEERING, the decision was made to replace the pelletizing drum by a pelletizing disc of the HAVER SCARABAEUS© series, which ensures pellets, suitable for spreading with standardized sowing and fertilizer distributors.

The features that made our customer decide for the SCARABAEUS© 4200 were the robust design, the energy-efficient and low-maintenance drive unit with two asynchronous motors, which allow for start-up even under full load. This ensures continued operation, if one of the motors fails, as well as the system’s high flexibility, such as the possibility to adjust inclination and speed during ongoing operation.
Convinced in the advanced knowledge and the high quality standards of our technology, our customer decided to update its operations choosing the NIAGARA T-Class 1500×5000 for product grading and the HAVER Computer Particle Analyzer CPA 2.1 for continuous determination of product quality, in addition to the pelletizing disc SCARABAEUS© 4200 complete with its control system. At this point it is also important to mention that other technologies from the extensive product portfolio of HAVER & BOECKER NIAGARA are already operating successfully in the chemical fertilizer industry (MAP, DAP, NPK).

After installing our systems in the fertilizer facility of our customer, the plant manager reported that with 90 M.-%, the share of usable pellets in the product even surpass the performance of pilot lab tests. Even the solidity and roundness of the pellets improved significantly: “Our customers had registered this distinct improvement in quality and said that they are highly satisfied”, confirmed the plant manager from the Australian fertilizer facility. After the completion of commissioning, HAVER & BOECKER Australia took over customer service. They will carry out the regular maintenance of the machines and support the customer in future process optimization.

Such success stories not only guarantee the good image of the HAVER & BOECKER NIAGARA and HAVER ENGINEERING in the eyes of the customers, but also provide for sustainable growth of the customer, who can continue to rely on the services of the Niagara Group as a technological partner.
Nevertheless, the most important thing by realizing such projects is to help our customers to realize their vision for the organic farming of the future: Choosing our products, we are able to support the sustainable food sourcing and to improve the soil fertility whatever for gardening, horticulture or for agriculture.

HAVER & BOECKER NIAGARA supports the customers to develop and optimize their processes, machines and plants. In the test facility of HAVER ENGINEERING are various tests equipment for pelletizing available. The objective of HAVER Process Engineering is to meet customers technical requirements and economic benefits. To achieve this, it is necessary to concentrate on the whole pelletizing process, starting with raw materials preparation, dosing and mixing and binder treatment. The core-components of pelletizing are focused in detail to minimize the efforts of final product classification, material circulation as well as de-dusting, safety and environmental protection. Applying recognized technical norms and standards with tailor-made processing leads to a production process that saves energy and resources.

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