At POWTECH 2019 in Nuremberg, the plant manufacturing and process development specialist, Glatt, is presenting a groundbreaking waste-free process that recycles the phosphorus from ash to produce ready-to-use high-quality fertilisers.
The second highlight is a new plant concept for continuous powder agglomeration: it’s extremely economical, versatile and, thanks to its modular design, is ready for operation in 2 weeks.
Glatt Ingenieurtechnik will be presenting a market-ready process at POWTECH that fulfils the legal obligation of German waste disposal companies to recover phosphorus. In the first step of the two-stage “PHOS4green” process, a suspension is produced from the phosphate-containing ash, a mineral acid and, depending on the objective, other components. The suspension is then spray granulated in the fluidised bed. This results in fertiliser granulates that are available to plants and soil, which can be discharged, filled and delivered directly after the desired grain size has been reached.
“Fluidised bed granulation has been a mature process for decades, enabling a simple and safe introduction to fertiliser ordinance-compliant phosphate recovery,” says Lutz Heinzl, Sales Manager of the Food, Feed & Fine Chemicals competence area at Glatt. “The process recycles 100% of the ash. By flexibly adapting the recipes, a wide variety of fertilisers, including complex varieties (NP, PK, NPK), can be produced, which can be placed on the market as new products.”
Transferring fine powders and powder mixtures into uniformly porous, practically dust-free, soluble and meterable granulates is what the new “GF ModFlex” plant concept achieves in an endless loop with consistently top quality and safety. The space miracle is based on established Glatt fluid bed technology and, thanks to gentle process control, preserves the nutritional and functional properties of the products.
With this compact modular system, Glatt is responding to manufacturers who want to upgrade or renew their machinery at short notice, with limited space and with production volumes of 100–3000 kg/h. Designed to meet market requirements, the Atex-compliant concept, equipped with WIP cleaning, also scores with an extremely short installation time of only 12 days and an integrated room and zone concept.
Another highlight presented by Glatt is the continuous powder synthesis method: APPtec®. Using spray calcination in a pulsating hot gas stream at temperatures of 200-900 °C, powders with particularly narrow particle size distributions can be produced from a wide range of starting materials. The unique and easily controllable thermodynamic process conditions make it possible to precisely adjust the product properties for example with regard to chemical composition, morphology, phase structure and coating or surface chemistry.
In addition to the joint development of APPtec®-based powders and contract production, Glatt also offers reactors of the ProAPP® series in various sizes such as for laboratory scale production.
About Glatt Ingenieurtechnik
Glatt Ingenieurtechnik GmbH plans and carries out international projects from the enlargement or modernization of existing production facilities to the construction of whole new factories. In doing so, the company combines professional engineering with sound technical know-how derived from patented process technologies it has developed itself, such as powder synthesis with APPtecand fluidized and spouted bed methods for granulation and coating processes.
The focus of the projects is on processes in the field of particle design and particle engineering for the development, optimization, functionalization and production of powder and bulk goods such as granulates and pellets for food, feed, chemicals and fine chemicals and processes for the manufacture of biotechnological and chemical active ingredients for sterile and non-sterile dosage forms of drugs.
Glatt Ingenieurtechnik GmbH has its headquarters in Weimar. Affiliates are located in Wiesbaden and Dresden, Switzerland, Russia, India and the USA.As an integral part of the international Glatt Group, Glatt Ingenieurtechnik can draw on a global network of some 3,000 employees. Numerous agencies exist worldwide as contacts for the full range of goods and services. You will find more information at: www.glatt.com
