Keywords: Fluid drum granulation, fattening, LDAN, HDAN, ammonium nitrate

Actual trends in the fertilizer industry show an increased interest in the production of granular product versus prills or crystals. This is mainly due to the spreading of bulk blending as a way to customise the fertilizer mix to be applied to a field or even part of it, in what is called precision agriculture.

This blending requires hard granules with low dust levels to withstand the handling imposed on the product. Fluid Drum Granulation (FDG) is one way to obtain such products. It has been applied to the granulation of many different products: ammonium nitrate (AN), CAN, urea, sulfur, sulfur + bentonite, ammonium sulfate, NPK composite granules and even to an amino acid (lysine) to name a few. New applications are constantly being developed in Kaltenbach-Thüring’s pilot plant.

In the paper, FDG's application to fertilizer grade ammonium nitrate granulation or fattening is reviewed and compared to pugmilling or prilling.

Laurent Dall'Aglio, Kaltenbach-Thüring, France.

24 pges, 5 figures, 5 tables