magazine of the sulfuric acid today spring/summer 2015

8/16/2019 Magazine of the Sulfuric Acid Today Spring/Summer 2015

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T O D A Y

www.H2

S04Today.com Spring/Summer 2015

C O V E R I N G M A I N T E N A N C E S O L U T I O N S F O R T H E I N D U S T R Y

K e y s t o n e P u b l i s h i n g P . O . B o x 3 5 0 2

C o v i n g t o n , L A 7 0 4 3 4

A d d r e s s S e r v i c e R e q u e s t e d

P R S T S T D

U . S . P S T G

P A I D

G P I

IN THIS ISSUE > > > > Global sulfuric acid—supply and

demand outlook PAGE 12

Vertical pump sealing options: packing

seals vs. mechanical seals PAGE 14

Improving plant performance using

state-of-the-art MECS® catalysts PAGE 24


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INDUSTRY INSIGHTS

Topsøe part of consortium

to develop large-scale

fertilizer plant in TanzaniaLYNGBY, Denmark—A consortium con-

sisting of Haldor Topsøe A/S, the Germancompany Ferrostaal Industrial Projects

GmbH, and the Pakistani industrial en-

terprise Fauji Fertilizer Company Ltd, is

going to develop a large-scale fertilizer

complex in Tanzania together with the

state-owned Tanzania Petroleum Develop-

ment Corporation.

The project is currently the largest

investment project in Tanzania with an

investment sum of more than $1 billion.

The fertilizer complex is expected to be

on-stream in 2019/20, producing 1.3 mil-lion tonnes of fertilizer per year for both

the local and international market. Agri-

culture in Tanzania will stand to benefit in

particular. The sector makes up approxi-

mately one third of Tanzania’s gross do-

mestic product, with more than 75 percent

of the population working in the agricul-

tural sector. It is expected that 5,000 direct

and indirect jobs will be created during

the construction and operating period.

The consortium is providing sup-

port through the entire project develop-

ment, including financing, technology and

product-offtake as well as construction,

maintenance and operation of the plant.

As part of this, Topsøe’s role will be to

deliver license, engineering, hardware and

catalysts for the fertilizer plant, which will

be located in the South of Tanzania, in the

Mt. Wara area, where there are existing

port facilities and connections to a future

natural gas grid.

The consortium emerged as the win-

ner of a tender carried out by the Tanza-

nian government in 2013 and is currently

in exclusive negotiations with gas suppli-

ers regarding the supply of gas for the fer-

tilizer complex. Furthermore, Tanzanian

shareholders and off-takers will also play a

significant part in the further development

and realization of the project.

“We believe the plant will leave a pos-

itive footprint in Tanzania, enabling the

country to monetize its huge gas reserves

and in the process create jobs and boost

agricultural productivity,” said Bjerne S.

Clausen, Chief Executive Officer at Top-

søe. “From Topsoe’s perspective, the proj-

ect is also extremely interesting. Not only

does it represent a substantial contract

value on its own terms, it also holds the

potential of becoming a long term steady

source of income due to our planned co-

ownership of the plant.”

For more information, please visit

www.topsoe.com.

Siemens to supply steam

turbine generator units toKazakhstanERLANGEN, Germany—Siemens has re-

ceived an order for the supply of two steam

turbine generator units for the Balkhash

coal-fired power plant in Kazakhstan. The

EPC contractor is a Korean joint venture

consisting of Samsung C&T and Samsung

Engineering Co. Ltd. The operator and

end customer for the plant is the Balkhash

Thermal Power Plant Joint Stock Com-

pany. The two turbines will be used pri-

marily for power generation in the plant,

although the plant is also designed for co-generation of heat and power for flexible

generation of district heating. Commis-

sioning is scheduled for summer 2019.

The Balkhash coal-fired plant is lo-

cated on the shore of Lake Balkhash, one

of the largest lakes in central Asia, in east-

ern Kazakhstan. Siemens’ scope of sup-

ply for the order includes two SST5-6000

steam turbines, each with an electrical

generating capacity of 660 megawatts, and

two generators of type SGen5-3000W, in-

cluding control systems and all auxiliaryand ancillary systems. This plant is char-

acterized by its particularly high fuel effi-

ciency thanks to co-generation of heat and

power.

“We are very pleased that Samsung

is putting its trust in Siemens. Thanks to

our efficient and reliable technology, this

project is contributing to sustainable, envi-

ronmentally friendly generation of power

and heat. Erecting a very modern, highly

efficient power plant in Kazakhstan with

Samsung is a milestone for Siemens,” saidWilfried Ulm, head of the Steam Turbines

Business Unit within Siemens Power and

Gas.

“Thanks to our excellent cooperation

with Siemens on the Balkhash Thermal

Power Plant project, we are confident that

we will successfully execute this project

together with our experienced partner,”

said YongHoon Hwang from Samsung

Joint Venture.

More information, please visit www.

energy.siemens.com.

Haldor Topsøe signs

contract for new fertilizer

plant in SlovakiaLYNGBY, Denmark—Topsøe A/S has

signed contracts with Technip and Duslo

s.a. of Slovakia for a new ammonia plant

that will be constructed adjacent to an ex-

isting fertilizer complex in Šaľa, a town

located 65 kilometers f rom Bratislava, thecapital of the Slovak Republic.

As part of the project, Haldor Topsøe

will supply licensing and basic engineer-

ing as well as proprietary catalyst and

equipment for the ammonia plant, while

Technip has been awarded the contract to

develop EPC for the new plant. The plant

is expected to go on-stream in early 2018

and will be designed to meet a daily pro-

duction capacity of 1,600 MTPD. Con-

sequently, the new plant is set to become

an important part of the local economy ofSlovakia by providing economic growth

as well as a reliable source to downstream

urea and ammonium nitrate that can ben-

efit productivity in the agricultural sector.

The new ammonia plant will be de-

signed based on the latest proprietary Hal-

dor Topsøe technology, namely the Hal-

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D e p a r t m e n t


5/43

dor Topsøe Exchange Reformer (HTER)

technology that ensures an efficient and

reliable conversion of the feedstock, which

improves plant economics significantly

and minimizes the environmental impact

of the plant.

From a technical perspective, theHTER consists of a number of catalyst-

filled tubes installed in a refractory lined

shell located in parallel with the main re-

former and using the waste heat available

from the secondary reformer. In this way

the layout not only reduces the size of the

main reformer and its natural gas fuel con-

sumption, but also minimizes steam gen-

eration from the plant.

“The project in Slovakia is unique

because it represents the first entirely

new ammonia plant to be built in Europeover the last decades,” said Per Bakkerud,

group vice president in Topsøe’s Chemical

Business Unit. “The ammonia industry is

highly competitive and even the slightest

changes in performance can impact the

bottom line significantly. Improvements in

production technology such as HTER are

paving the way for improved production

economics. This applies to new plants, but

is also relevant when it comes to revamps

of older plant facilities in Europe. In fact, a

revamp with an HTER can enhance capac-

ity in an existing plant up to 25 percent.”

Over the past 75 years, Haldor Topsøe

has earned a reputation for being a highly

trusted supplier to the global ammonia

industry. The company’s industry-leading

solutions ensure reliable and safe operation

with the highest utilization and the low-

est possible energy consumption. Topsøe

continuously works to optimize its custom-

ers’ ammonia production and ensure they

achieve the lowest total cost of ownership.From new plants to revamps, the company

can help increase capacity and flexibility,

both in relation to feedstock and co-pro-

duction of other chemicals, creating the

foundation for optimal day-to-day opera-

tion and long-term success.


www.topsoe.com.

Outotec to revamp and

upgrade the Potrerilloscopper smelter and

sulfuric acid plant for

CodelcoESPOO, Finland—Outotec has been

awarded a contract to revamp and upgrade

the Potrerillos copper smelter and sulfuric

acid plant of Codelco Salvador Division

in northern Chile, in order to comply with

the new Chilean environmental regula-

tions that take effect in 2018. The deal isvalued at approximately EUR 64 million,

of which one third has been booked in

Outotec’s third quarter order intake and

the rest in the fourth quarter 2014 order in-

take. Outotec’s scope of delivery includes

detailed engineering of the revamp, equip-

ment supply and technical assistance dur-

ing the construction and commissioning

and start up of the smelter and acid plant.

Equipment deliveries will include, among

other things, gas collecting hoods for the

existing converters, revamp of the dry

electrostatic and wet precipitators and gas

ducts, a catalytic converter and an eff luenttreatment plant with additional water man-

agement plant equipment.

“This is a good example of how

Codelco and Outotec work together, com-

bining their efforts to secure business

sustainability and the necessary care of

the environment in a profitable way,” says

Kimmo Kontola, head of Outotec’s Ameri-

cas region.

“Through advanced technology, we

can extend the li fe cycle of our customers’

facilities. Specialized technical services

are always part of a long-term business

relationship with our customers, provid-

ing added value beyond equipment sup-

ply,” says Robin Lindahl, head of Outotec’s

Metals, Energy & Water business area.


www.outotec.com.

Solvay sells sulfuric acid

supplying Eco Servicessegment to CCMP Capital

AdvisorsNEW YORK—CCMP Capital Advisors

LLC (CCMP), headquartered in New

York, has acquired the sulfuric acid-pro-

ducing Eco Services business unit of Brus-

sels-based Solvay SA. CCMP said that the

Eco Services unit, headquartered in New

Jersey, will continue to manufacture fresh,

high purity sulfur ic acid products. The unit

had 2013 revenues of $357.1 million andCCMP has completed its acquisition for

$890 million. The sale forms part of Sol-

vay’s strategy to achieve higher growth and

greater returns.

Headquartered in Cranbury, N.J., the

sulfuric acid virgin production and re-

generation business recycles spent sulfu-

ric acid and supplies it to refineries in the

West Coast, Midwest, the Gulf of Mexico

and Canada. The Eco Services company

caters to mining, water treatment and other

chemical processing segments, from its six

manufacturing plants. In July 2014, Solvay

and CCMP signed an agreement for the

acquisition transaction. “Eco Services has

a market-leading position and generates

stable cash flows, but its business profile

differs from Solvay’s strategic ambitions,”

says Solvay CEO Jean-Pierre Clamadieu.

“CCMP Capital is committed to working

with the management team to make the

investments necessary to support the long-

term growth of the business.”CCMP is focused on equity invest-

ments of about $500 million in North

American and European markets, and pri-

marily invests in consumer/retail, indus-

trial, energy and healthcare sectors.

For more information, please visit www.

solvay.com or www.ccmpcapital.com. q

INDUSTRY INSIGHTS

Sulfuric Acid Today • Spring/Summer 2015 PAGE 5

D e p ar t m en t


6/43

Partners, Professionals,

Problem-Solvers...Check.

Safety: CMW’s MOD rate for 2014 is 0.65. Results exhibit the difference between talk andaction. CMW has a company wide behavior-based training system that drives safety at every

level of the organization. With over 100 turnarounds under our belt, we are proud of our

dedication to keeping our employees safe.

Scheduling:

CMW has a dedicated scheduling/planning division with decades of

experience in developing project master schedules that have consistently removed hours,

if not days, of wasted time and resources. From work scope outlines to complete project

tracking through Microsoft Project and/or Primavera, CMW will deliver the master schedule

that makes a difference.

Fabrication: CMW’s ASME code shop has the S and U stamps along with the NBIC R

stamp for all your fabrication requirements. Our state-of-the-art 75,000 square foot facility

has produced hundreds of sulfuric pieces of equipment such as converters, heat exchangers,

pressure vessels, acid towers, ducts, expansions joints, and much more for whatever your

specific requirements may be.

Field Installation: CMW has an impeccable reputation for expert quality workmanship

and finishing on time and on budget. Our field crews are some of the best in the business

and our close to 50 years of making sure your plant is back on line provides the confidence

you need in making your contractor decision.

Maintenance: CMW believes in full service for your sulfuric acid plant. Our maintenance

crews ensure that your plant operates at peak efficiency on a daily basis while also providing

the best preparation for all outage related work.

When it comes to exceeding the qualifications to perform

your plant’s turnaround or outage, CMW tops the list:

Check us out at www.cmw.cc

For detailed capabilities, scan the QR Code

or go to: http://www.cmw.cc/additionalinfo.aspx

Toll-free in the USA: (877) 704-7411

International: (813) 737-1402

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813-737-1402


7/43

The world’s population is estimated

to be about 7 billion people, with another

150,000 people born every day. Combine

those statistics with limits on farmable

land, and you get a powerful demand for

productive soil. Understanding these forces,

strategic planners at Mosaic Co., the world’s

largest producer of phosphate fertilizer, are

investing billions of dollars in the com-

pany’s phosphate- and potash-based fertil-

izer operations, including the flagship New

Wales phosphate facility in Mulberry, Fla. The New Wales plant was built in 1975

as a state-of-the-art facility and at the time

was the largest phosphate fertilizer complex

in the world. Before Mosaic purchased it,

the facility was owned by IMC Global Inc.,

which operated several plants in Florida

and Louisiana. IMC Global had a long his-

tory dating back to 1909, and grew to be a

major player in both phosphate and potash

fertilizers.

Mosaic began operating in 2004, as a

merger between IMC Global and anotherinternationally recognized leader in indus-

trial fertilizers, Cargill Crop Nutrition.

Cargill Crop Nutrition began in the 1960s

as a division of Cargill, Inc., a leading agri-

business company. From there, the division

grew to be one of the world’s top producers

of phosphate and nitrogen fertilizers.

Today Mosaic, headquartered in

Plymouth, Minn., leads the industry in

worldwide phosphate production at 11 mil-

lion tons annual capacity and is a major

global producer of potash at over 10 mil-lion tons. To achieve these volumes, the

company employs nearly 9,000 individuals

to work in over a dozen large-scale mining

and production facilities and multiple distri-

bution centers and offices worldwide.

The New Wales facility, though no lon-

ger the largest fertilizer plant on the globe,

is well-positioned to continue its world-

class legacy. As a proven high-volume, low-

er-cost performer among Mosaic’s phos-

phate facilities, the company has invested

hundreds of millions of dollars to keep NewWales world-class as it moves into the 21st

century.

Much of this investment you can plainlysee. Walk through New Wales’ sulfuric acid

operations today and you will witness the

progress of a major capital investment plan

that, when completed, will have replaced

every major component of all five sulfuric

acid plants. You will also notice two new

heat recovery systems (HRS) and two new

steam turbine-generators, one installed in

2009 and the other one last year.

Putting the “Continuous” inContinuous Improvement For all of New Wales’ tangible

enhancements, equal focus has been placed

on improving the sulfuric acid department’s

processes and organizational structure. In

fact, New Wales has been analyzing every

aspect of its sulfuric acid department: oper-

ations and maintenance, OEE, maintenance

reliability and mechanical integrity, asset

management, staffing, role definitions and

training, safety—and more. Getting andkeeping New Wales at world-class perfor-

mance levels through this century means

creating a continuous improvement culture

and committing to supporting it for the long

term. Not a once-and-done process, but a

cyclical one: analyze your process, refine

your process, do your process. Repeat.

A key contributor to New Wales

refining its organizational practices is the

installation of a dedicated Continuous

Improvement (CI) group. Because the

CI group’s singular focus is to optimizethe facility, it can objectively help prob-

lem solve across departments. Ky Phan,

Continuous Improvement Manager at New

Wales, puts it this way. “The only skin

I have in the game is to help the plant

improve. And sometimes it takes an objec-

tive group to get all the right experts from

the different teams together to get to the

root of the problem.”

And often it takes the CI groups’

focused approach to hone in on the issues

amid all the activity involved with operat-

ing five acid plants, three generators and

multiple utility systems. “There is a lot

going on in a plant this size with the dif-

ferent groups always looking at safety, cost,

production, quality, environmental and so

forth,” Phan says. “The CI group’s job is to

penetrate beyond these routine activities tohelp identify root causes, facilitate solutions

and drive them to closure with long-term

solutions rather than temporary fixes.”

“Much of what we do sounds simple;

and it is,” Phan continues. “But the prob-

lems are never really simple. There are

always multiple causes that take time and

discipline to resolve.” With three years at

New Wales under his belt, Phan and his

team have earned recognition as a value-

add component of the facility. But it wasn’t

always that way.“New Wales has seen a lot of improve-

ment plans come and go over the years,”

says Phan. “In the past, a team would spend

months doing reviews to improve OEE,

maintenance reliability, turnaround man-

agement, costs, safety, workflow, etc. Then

the commitment to support the recom-

mendations would disappear as soon as the

company moved on to a new area of focus.

Lots of good work was done to identify and

solve problems, but there wasn’t the essen-

tial organizational support to maintain the

solutions for the long term.”

But all that has changed since Mosaic

took over and implemented this CI effort.

“The CI team has helped us tremendous-

ly,” says Keith Willis, Sulfuric Acid Area

Manager. “They’ve helped us get better

organized, stay focused and maintain

the discipline to follow our procedures.

They’ve put the systems and the metrics in

place. They’ve gotten the operators recogni-

tion from management for being an integral

part of the process. They’ve helped clearly

define all the roles in this facility and how

everyone at all levels contributes to the

overall plant and corporate goals.”

The CI team’s influence includes

another important dimension—manage-

ment support. “Beyond the tools to help

the plant identify its problems,” says Willis,

“now for the first time the CI group can

really deliver the management support—

whether that is capital funding, staffing, or

organizational standards and policies—ina way that has not been seen in the past at

New Wales.”

“It’s been rewarding to see that Mosaic

recognizes the value of continuous improve-

ment,” Willis says, “and has made the long-

term commitment to ensure the continuous

part of continuous improvement is there.”

Sustaining capital

investments Mosaic’s long-term commitment is

also evidenced by the capital investments it

has been making to the New Wales facility.

And with five acid plants, that means a lot

of capital. As the sulfuric acid plant equip-

ment originally installed in the mid-1970s

began approaching 25 years’ service life,

a long term capital equipment replacement

plan became imperative.When the plan was first being devel-

oped, a process analysis was conducted

to optimize the performance of each new

piece of equipment, as opposed to simply

replacing old assets with new. Steam turbine

and blower efficiencies were improved; cast

iron grid and post converters were upgrad-

ed to stainless steel radial flow designs;

and carbon steel brick-lined acid towers

with cast iron distributors became alloy

towers with high efficiency distributors,

low pressure drop structured packing, andthe latest mist elimination technology with

concentric auto-drain candle designs. All

of the heat exchange equipment designs,

from boilers to economizers, to gas-gas

heat exchangers, to acid coolers have been

optimized as well.

“It’s been a long program, but the

results have been exceptional,” says Jim

Dougherty, New Wales Process Engineer.

“These upgrades not only returned all

of the assets to their original operational

integrity, but have also increased produc-

tion capacity and improved energy recov-

eries. On top of that, the plants also operate

with even lower emission rates than the

original designs did.”

Why not just fix the equipment? It’s all

part of Mosaic’s long-term philosophy.

“Mosaic believes in the phosphate

business, and is investing heavily for the

future,” says Chris Hagemo, Assistant

Facility Manager at New Wales. “We are

deploying significant capital to not just fix

what we have, but to make things better.

We’ll get 20 to 30 more years of solid per-

formance out of this equipment.”

The equipment replacement count is

impressive: 5 each of major components

such as furnaces and converters; 10 waste

heat boilers; 15 acid towers; 18 acid coolers

and 25 super heaters and economizers. And

when you include the more routine equip-

ment like pump tanks and stacks, the grand

total exceeds 90 pieces of major equipment.

Super-sized turnarounds

With all the new capital equipmentand the heat recovery installations, New

Wales has been experiencing the most

complex turnarounds in its history. “The

turnarounds here are the largest I’ve seen

Mosaic’s New Wales Plant: bringing aworld-class legacy into the 21st century

The last of the 5 stacks is replaced duringthe 45-day 01 Plant turnaround that startedin January 2015.

Additional steam supply for the highefficiency steam injection system isgenerated by an LLP Boiler which recoversadditional heat from the HRS acid togenerate 15 psig steam.


C ov er S t or y


8/43

in my 25-year career,” says Willis. “The

coordination between the project group, the

operations group and the engineering group

has to be spot on. And while we’re doing a

turnaround on one of the acid plants, we’re

still operating four other plants and three

generators.”

A normal New Wales turnaround

used to take two weeks, and might include

screening catalyst, a little maintenance onacid distributors and brick refractory, water

blasting acid coolers, cleaning boiler and

heat exchanger tubes and maybe replacing

a gas duct or two. Then, when the capital

equipment replacement funding started

coming in, things changed. “We’ve had

to reinvent how turnarounds are handled

here,” Hagemo says. “How we’ve choreo-

graphed outages from staffing, planning

and logistics is a testament to the hard work

and efforts of the entire sulfuric team.”

“When we first started executing theequipment replacement plan, replacing just

one piece of equipment, such as an acid

cooler or a gas-gas heat exchanger, was a

big task. Each time, we had to figure out

the best way to do the work for each piece

of equipment,” recalls Dougherty. Then

things began to accelerate. “We moved on

to bigger scale equipment, like furnaces and

acid towers, and then ultimately the first

converter change-out. That was a really big

deal for us—28 days.”

But the work intensified even further.“So much so,” recalls Capital Projects Man-

ager Atusa Amiri, “that it is hard to remem-

ber what a turnaround with only one or two

equipment replacements was even like. We

progressed to multiple project turnarounds,

like a new converter with an acid tower and

two gas-gas heat exchangers. After so many

of these,” Amiri continues, “the norm be-

came replacing 3-5 pieces of equipment ev-

ery turnaround. We had to find a way to get

ahead of the game. Ultimately we ended up

with a 10-year sulfuric acid capital equip-

ment plan to lay out which equipment made

the most sense to change together based on

New Wales’ 5-year capital funding plans.

I was developing and securing funding for

projects 3-4 turnarounds into the future, all

while executing 3-5 piece turnarounds ev-

ery 6 months.”

For the sulfuric operations and main-

tenance group, the frequency and duration

of the turnarounds compounded the com-

plexity further. “We were doing these big

turnarounds every six months and many of

them were nearly a month long,” explains

Willis. “So that means we were almost al-

ways either working on turnaround prep, in

turnaround, or in the post-turnaround de-

mobilization stage. Eventually we got to thepoint where turnaround mode was the only

mode we had.”

“Fortunately,” says Hagemo, “by the

time we started getting into these multiple

equipment turnarounds, we had already de-

veloped enough experience performing sin-

gle-equipment replacements that the larger

projects came down to proper planning and

coordination.”

The turnaround complexity ultimately

peaked in 2014 with back-to-back turn-

arounds installing 5 pieces of equipmentduring each outage plus heat recovery sys-

tem (HRS) conversions, and the commis-

sioning of a 30 megawatt (MW) turbine

generator in between. Finally, the most re-

cent turnaround spanned 45 days and con-

sisted of 9 major equipment replacements—

a furnace, two waste boilers, drying tower

doghouse and mist eliminators, two econo-

mizers, a superheater and two acid coolers.

“We’re looking forward to getting back to

those “easy” 2-3 equipment turnarounds

again,” says Willis.

Managing turnarounds—

hitting the bull’s eye

With the scope of the turnarounds andall the different groups wanting to perform

capital replacements, maintenance reliabil-

ity and traditional turnaround work during

the same outage time, Operations Turn-

around Coordinator Keith Eldridge’s role

became more critical than ever. “I coordi-nate the logistics of all these teams coming

together,” Eldridge says. “So I developed a

plot plan to track all the different contrac-

tors coming in for all the various projects.

Who is coming in when, when is a certain

contractor available, what equipment are

they bringing, what crane size are they us-

ing, will it fit, what roadways are we closing

for those 12 concrete trucks coming in, is

there enough parking, how do we give ac-

cess to the 300 additional people moving in

and out, do we hire a full-time person to di-

rect traff ic, how much waste are we generat-

ing, how are we handling that and so forth.”

“These turnarounds became complex,

but they still had to execute perfectly. It’s

like having to hit the bull’s eye every time,”Eldridge says. “But, hey, that’s what we’re

aiming for.”

Helping him hit that bull’s eye are

two dedicated planners, Mosaic’s Jai Jai-

ram, and Central Maintenance and Weld-

ing’s Walter Brown. “I spend nearly all of

my time here at New Wales planning and

scheduling turnarounds,” says Brown. To-

gether with Mosaic, Brown has taken the

best practices from past turnarounds and

developed a New Wales-style turnaround

planning system that uses templates and anoptimized sequence of procedures. Brown

also combines all the contractors’ sched-

ules and gets daily contractor updates,

which he includes in the master schedule

and redistributes.

“Tracking progress is critical,” Brown

says. “In order to try to bring things in,

you have to know whether you’re getting

behind. People need interim goals on their

way to achieving the end goal. It used to be

we’d have just the one end date. Then the

tasks in the middle would keep slipping outfarther until you’d push the end date.”

Given the significant price tag associ-

ated with each super-sized turnaround, New

Wales has also been working diligently to

extend the time between outages. The or igi-

nal turna rounds back in 1975 took place ev-

ery 9 months driven by the need to screen

the old pellet style catalyst. Then, with the

advent of low pressure drop ring catalyst,

a 24-month operating cycle became com-

monplace. Eventually they were increased

to 30 months. But even the 30-month cycle

is under scrutiny as the team considers

the feasibility of extending to a reliable

36-month operating cycle.

“We’ve looked at the economics of

taking just a few days to do a simple turn-

around—screen catalyst and maybe check

distribution levels in the towers,” says Ha-

gemo. “But even that bit of work can cost

$2.5-3 million, so we found it makes better

financial sense to extend another 6 months

and save half a million dollars.”Pushing turnaround cycles even fur-

ther means the diligent every-day operat-

ing paradigm of continuous improvement

is even more important. “Longer operating

cycles means we have to run the plants even

better in between,” says Hagemo. “Proac-

tive maintenance reliability is critical.”

“We are in this culture now of finding

sustainable solutions to reduce expenses,

improve performance and improve reliabil-

ity,” Hagemo continues. “We’re question-

ing historical operating paradigms. And

we’ve been successful. When we went to

a 30-month turnaround cycle, folks were

saying, ‘you can’t run an HRS plant past

24 months,’ but we did. We’ll see whether

we can continue in the long-term, but we’ll

keep searching for those bottle necks and

stretching ourselves as long as we can.”

Although the New Wales team with its

five acid plants executes turnarounds every

6 months, for Mosaic as a whole, it’s an even

bigger story. In central Florida, Mosaic now

operates a total of 17 sulfuric acid plants,

all of which share the same contractors

during turnarounds. With this many plants

and a limited set of qualified local contrac-

tors, coordinating all of the acid plant turn-

arounds has become a monumental task.

In front of that task is Turnaround

Maintenance Advisor Dennis Sisco, also

known locally as “the turnaround guy.”

A huge proponent of planning, Sisco has

formalized a Mosaic-wide turnaround

management program and helps facili-

tate execution of that process at all of the

sites, particularly the sulfuric acid plants.

A central theme to his work is sharing i n-

formation.

“We’ve looked at all the sites, captur-

ing what they’re doing well and what they

can improve, and taking that from site to

site, so that everybody gains from the tribal

knowledge of all the teams,” says Sisco.

A common issue Sisco has noticed

throughout has been too few quality con-

tractors to perform all the work at Mosaic’s

17 acid plants. And the contractors they are

using are stretched to capacity.

“This year, we’re conducting nine

sulfuric acid turnarounds,” Sisco says. “A

record for Mosaic. And if we’re using the

same contractors for all of them, the crewsget worn out. We’re looking into ways of

requiring them to take time off every so

often, rotating crews, and even rotating

contractors so we don’t burn out any par-

ticular contractor and get better, safer per-

formance overall.”

Securing safety—

“priority #1” Given all the considerations regard-

ing turnarounds, there is one area that hasrisen above all others—safety. “The safety

turnaround management plan is fully inte-

grated to the plant’s planning process from

day one all the way through to the final

turnaround audits,” explains New Wales

Manager for Health, Safety and Security,

Joe Alderdice. “All the contractors for the

Installation of new 4A/C economizer —4A superheater installed at 02 Plant. Theequipment was designed by MECS/DuPontand fabricated by Optimus.

Chris Hagemo Dennis Sisco Kristi FarrellChris Pearson Jim Gruber


C o v e r S t o r y


9/43

major projects provide a detailed safety

plan as part of the bidding process and the

quality of these plans is critical to contrac-

tor selection. Once all the contractors are

selected, the plans for each contractor’s

job are integrated into an overall safety

plan that becomes the core of all of the

other turnaround planning activities. This

approach becomes all the more critical as

the turnarounds became longer and more

complicated.”

As important, if not more important

than these critical planning tasks are the

activities Mosaic has developed over the

years to establish a direct point of contact

with every contract employee in every

turnaround every day. “A pre-turnaround

safety meeting is held between Mosaic

and the contractor management and super-

visory teams,” explains Alderdice. “On

day one of the turnaround, a kick-off

meeting is held that is attended by every

contract employee to set the tone for the

turnaround. Demonstrations are set up for

safety focus areas specific to the activities

for that particular turnaround or lessons

learned from previous turnarounds. Then

at least one member of the sulfuric area

operations or maintenance staff attends

each individual contractor’s daily toolbox

meeting to establish a safety contact point

with every single contract employee every

single day of the turnaround. The Mosaic

safety team holds a daily meeting with allof the contractor’s lead field supervisors

and field safety supervisor (each contractor

is required to provide its own field safety

supervisor). The daily turnaround planning

and coordination meeting includes all of

the other contract foreman and begins with

safety discussions that include review of

all of the daily audits and observations to

ensure that everyone is aware of all of the

safety activities going on.”

Emergency communications is anoth-

er part of the safety planning. Contractfield safety supervisors are provided with

Mosaic plant radios and are required to

have a system in place to notify all of

their field foremen immediately with a

single call or text in case of emergency.

The final contact point takes place during

the job safety walkthrough that takes place

between the operations personnel and the

crew performing each job as part of the

standard safe work permitting procedures.

By integrating contractors into the

process, New Wales is building importantrelationships. “Every contract employee

out in the field knows they can bring

up an issue, and we’ll follow through,”

says Maintenance Supervisor Barry Brown.

“Our goal is to avoid a reoccurrence of a

significant near miss or incident. So if it

takes an extra three days or an extra three

weeks to get the job done safely, that’s what

we are going to do. Safety is number one.”

The improved relationships have been

earning dividends. “Now the contractors

will come up to us and challenge us to

examine their work, along with the work of

other contractors and Mosaic employees, to

see if we can find things that might cause

incidents,” says Brown. “It used to be they’d

get nervous when we approached them.

Now they want to talk to not only us about

what they’re doing, but to other contractors

as well. This new culture has created an

atmosphere where they all feel comfortable

talking to each other about safety.”

“You can actually feel it when you

walk around the turnaround areas,” agrees

Alderdice. “Everybody is coordinating and

communicating better, and looking out for

each other as well.”

And the results of all these efforts?

Despite the New Wales sulfuric aciddepartment executing some of the most

complex and dangerous turnarounds in its

history, there has not been a recordable

injury during a turnaround since 2008.

“That’s 14 consecutive turnarounds with-

out a single injury in any one of them,”

says Hagemo. “Of all that has been accom-

plished in these sulfuric plant turnarounds,

this safety performance is what we all take

the most pride in.”

Operations staffing andtraining With the investment in capital equip-

ment and plans to continue extending oper-

ating cycles to 36-months and possibly

beyond, the performance of the supervisors

and operators who actually run the plants

becomes even more critical. The standards

required to operate three HRS units and

maintain top performance of a sulfuric acid

plant over a 36-month operat ing cycle with-

out any hiccups are higher than ever before.Recognizing that having the proper

talent is crucial to the success of any

operation, Phan’s Continuous Improvement

group was instrumental in getting addi-

tional headcount to do the work, but not

before conducting a comprehensive analysis

of plant roles and goals. “Our task was to

really understand who’s doing what and

who needs to be doing what,” says Phan.

“So we interviewed a lot of people and

asked a lot of very specific questions, like,

‘What are your key performance indica-

tors? How is success in your job measured?

What are your goals? What’s working well

for you? What’s not working well?’”

The analysis identified all the tasks

necessary to achieve the plant’s goals and

when compared to the tasks that were cur-

rently being performed, there were many

tasks left unassigned. The analysis also

identified that the employees were perform-

ing their jobs very well, but there simply

wasn’t enough employees to complete all

the tasks.

“It was the specificity of Ky’s group

being able to document all the roles andresponsibilities that are needed to get us

where we want to go, and identify all the

standard work within those roles,” explains

Willis. “That became the blueprint that we

used to compare against our existing staff.

We were able to clearly show management

exactly where our staffing fell short, and we

got the additional headcount we needed,” he

says. “It’s unusual to see headcount added,”

Willis continues, “but that’s the leverage the

CI group brings to the table—the ability to

get the necessary support from the highestlevels. And these days, Mosaic management

has been following through and delivering

the goods to us every time.”

Another critical aspect that came out

of the evaluation was a lack of consis-

tency in the training of the operators. Each

operator was performing his best, but some-

times assigned tasks were under-defined or

incompletely understood. “These differ-

ences in understanding and performance

levels,” explains Sulfuric Acid Production

Coordinator Rod Dexter, “were a resultof inconsistent training practices within

the department.” So, based on standard

work tasks and roles evaluations, a new

training program was developed from the

ground up. “And all of the operators went

through it,” Dexter recalls, “from those

with 25 years of sulfuric experience to the

ones who never set foot in the acid plant.

And everyone came away with the exact

same understanding of all of the roles and

responsibilities of each operating position

in the department, the same standard work

definitions and exactly what performance

levels were expected for each task.”

The most beneficial portion of the new

training program was the custom-designed

computer simulation model of the New

Wales sulfuric acid plants developed by

MECS/DuPont. “The simulators have been

invaluable not only in terms of abbreviat-

ing learning time,” Willis explains, “but

especially in terms of the confidence that

the operators developed in their abilities

because they have actually run the plant

and troubleshot every possible failure sce-

nario on the simulator. The simulator is

essential training for the chief operators as

it gives them the ability to learn and make

mistakes on the simulator, whereas in the

past these learning mistakes were made on

the actual plants. The training supervisor

works in the background and can input sce-

narios for every failure that has occurred in

the 40-year history of New Wales,” Willis

says.

Production Coordinator David

Sheffield worked with the MECS/DuPontdevelopment team to get every detail of

the actual plant operations modeled. “The

simulator ended up being so good,” says

Sheffield, “that I challenged any operator

to take a double blind test whether they

were operating the simulator or a real plant.

So far, nobody has taken me up on it.” The

only complaint the operators have about

transitioning from the simulator to the real

plant is that they no longer have the simula-

tor’s pause button. “But when you get right

down to it,” Sheffield says, “there reallyisn’t anything the plant can throw at them

that they haven’t already experienced on the

simulator.”

An additional benefit to the simula-

tor is that field operators can use it to

learn how a chief operator runs the plant.

Understanding what the chiefs need from

field operators improves the performance

of the field operators as well as prepares

them to develop into chief operators.

The training program has proved a

resounding success—and in sharp contrastto the manner in which operators have

historically learned their jobs. “The train-

ing we used to have was school of hard

knocks—learn as you go,” says Dexter, “but

now our training process is world-class.

We’re taking guys who have never set foot

in an acid plant before and turning them

The sulfuric acid process engineering teamincludes, from left, Theresa Rowe, CrystalAlonso and Superintendent Nicole Christiansen.

Plant Operations/Maintenance team membersare, left to right, Drew Evans, Ricky Carlson,Keith Willis, Rod Dexter, Chris Thomas, BarryBrown, Doug Simmons and Keith Eldridge.

Ky Phan Atusa Amiri Jim DoughertyJoe Alderdice Jai Jairam


C ov er S t or y


10/43

into chief operators in six months. In the

past, an operator would have to be in the

job for six years before you’d even consider

making him chief.”

Maintenance reliability Mosaic has also been investing inother areas of New Wales’ organization-

al structure to keep the facility running

world-class. Maintenance reliability, main-

tenance workflow, plant automation, pro-

cess control engineers and advanced pro-

cess controls are all areas that have been

supported to a degree never before seen at

New Wales. The concept of staying ahead

has been a major focus for the maintenance

organization over the last several years.

From a mainly reactive strategy, the workhas shifted to a strongly proactive strat-

egy. “We’re finding issues before problems

manifest,” explains Chris Pearson, Facility

Maintenance Manager. “We’re finding

issues earlier on the failure curve so we

can address them sooner, quicker and more

cost effectively.”

Another significant piece of the phi-

losophy is employing an asset management

program for the plant. “Every piece of

equipment will have a spare parts program,

a cataloguing system for all the specifica-tions, as well as a preventative and predic-

tive maintenance program,” Pearson says.

Another significant piece of a good asset

management strategy is spares manage-

ment. “We are systematically reviewing

typical failure modes of each of our existing

assets to ensure we have the right spares

cataloged, documented in the BOM and,

where required, stocked in the store room,”

Pearson says. “With several major capital

expansion project currently underway, it is

important that we develop a spares manage-ment strategy long before commissioning

the new assets.”

The main goal of a proactive reliabil-

ity model is to improve overall equipment

effectiveness (OEE) to insure the assets are

available to run whenever operations needs

them to run and they are capable of running

at full capacity.

The changes have been on a revolu-

tionary scale. “It wasn’t too many years ago

that our maintenance strategies were mostly

reactive. Now we have a staff of reliabilityexperts who are dedicated to the develop-

ment of proactive strategies for all major

assets,” said Pearson.

The field plant maintenance organi-

zation is also coming up to speed. “Our

entire group, from planners, schedulers and

supervisors, right down to the mechanics

in the field, went for a week-long training

on root-cause analysis, thinking about why

something might fail, and even anticipating

a failure so you can avoid it altogether,”

says Brown. “You never heard of sendingmechanics to this type of training before.

The old culture around here was operations

ran it until it failed and then maintenance

fixed it. We’re not doing that anymore—

with mechanics out in the field having the

training they’ve had—we’re staying way

ahead of it now.”

The improved reliability program

has also benefited turnaround planning.

“Maintaining comprehensive health analy-

sis on all the equipment makes defining

the turnaround scope much more precise,”

says Sisco. “We can identify, with specific-

ity and hard data, what maintenance needs

to be done and which pieces of equip-

ment have outlived their usefulness.” This

specific data presented in a standardized

format has been essential in securing the

necessary funding to properly maintain

the asset value of the New Wales sulfuric

acid plants. “And getting the budget com-

mitment to turnarounds early on,” Sisco

continues, “has allowed earlier turnaround

planning, which was essential to the success

of the complex acid plant turnarounds overthe past five years.”

Opportunity capital

projects—the “game

changers” With the capital equipment replace-

ment program well under way and the oper-

ations and maintenance teams reorganized

and focused on optimizing existing acid

plant assets, Mosaic management turned

its attention to identifying capital projects

that could deliver improvements on a game

changing scale. The opportunities targeted

were energy recovery/power generation and

raw material supply, the two areas of sul-

furic acid operations that have the biggest

impact on reducing operating costs and

increasing revenue generation for the New

Wales complex.

The first energy recovery and cogen-

eration project was completed in 2009.

The scope included the addition of two

heat exchangers into the existing acid plant

systems and a new turbine-generator (TG).

The two heat exchangers recover additional

heat from the IPA circuit at the 02 plant and

from the original HRS unit located in the

03 plant to pre-heat boiler feed water. The

additional steam generated is used to drive

a 30 MW generator that was relocated from

a plant site that had been shut down in the

early years of Mosaic and re-designed to fit

the steam system at New Wales.

The next energy recovery opportunitywas the retro-fit of two acid plants with

MECS heat recovery systems (HRS) and

the installation of a fourth turbine genera-

tor. This project was commissioned in the

summer of 2014. The MECS HRS was

ordered with the latest steam injection

system design to generate even more steam

than the traditional HRS design. “Putting

steam into a gas system duct prior to an

acid tower goes against everything opera-

tions has learned about running a sulfuric

acid plant, but the system really performs.”says Willis. “The steam injection controls

automatically adjust to plant rate changes so

it is almost as simple as just turning it on or

off when you start up or shut down the acid

plant.” This 30 MW TG runs exclusively off

of steam generated in the two HRS systems

and gives New Wales the ability to not only

supply its own 60 MW base load, but also

supply the power requirements of Mosaic’s

largest mine processing plant and export

power to the local uti lity company.

Installing all of this new capital equip-ment presented challenges not only in the

coordination of the turnaround executions,

but during the engineering design phases as

well. “Given all the new equipment going

in, the engineering design teams had to

keep a close eye on how each new com-

ponent would affect the entire acid plant

design,” says New Wales Energy Project

Manager Kristi Farrell. “With the many dif-

ferent engineering contractors, we had a lot

of drawings that all had to mesh together.And because the energy project had such

a great impact to the design, it just made

sense to 3-D model the entire plant.”

This 3-D modeling has made the

designs much more understandable and

easy for everyone to evaluate. “Trying to

put a bunch of individual drawings together,

it’s really difficult to visualize how all the

designs integrate as a system. But we can

take the 3-D model and show it to the oper-

ations and maintenance folks and get their

feedback on the spot,” Farrell explains. 3-Dmodeling had been used for many years

for individual equipment projects, but with

the size of 2014 HRS project and the five

sustaining capital projects happening at

the same time, it was necessary to model

the entire acid plant in order to ensure that

all of the individual project designs inte-

grated into the existing plant equipment.

After these experiences, 3-D modeling has

become the standard for all of the sulfuric

acid plant projects. Because of their read-

ability, the models have become broadlyused across the plant to evaluate ergo-

nomics, develop repair plans, maintenance

planning and scheduling. Most importantly,

operations can use them for equipment

lockout planning and permitting, giving

them the ability to show the work crew

exactly the equipment location where they

will be working and how the equipment has

been prepared to be safely worked on.

The other game changing project is the

installation of a sulfur melting facility at the

New Wales site. “With Mosaic being theworld’s largest producer of phosphate fer-

tilizers, it stands to reason that we are also

the world’s largest consumer of sulfur,” says

Director of Raw Materials Procurement

Hermann Wittje. “We consume 4.5 mil-

lion tons of sulfur annually in our process.

That large volume leads to unique concerns

about supply security for this essential raw

material.”

Sulfur used for fertilizer production

generally comes in two forms, molten sulfur

and prilled sul fur (reformed solid granules).Sulfur is a by-product of petroleum refiner-

ies and natural gas production facilities.

With the advent of the new reserves of low-

sulfur content shale gas and oil currently

being mined in the United States, the North

American sulfur supply is expected to pro-

gressively tighten. World supplies, however,

A 3-D model image of New Wales SulfurMelter targeted to be operational by the endof 2015.

Chief plant operator Vance Governor at the04 Plant DCS workstation in the New Walescentral control room.

Production Coordinator David Sheffielddemonstrates the process controlssimulator developed by MECS/DuPont for

the New Wales standard and HRS retrofittedacid plants.

02 Plant HRS system with steam injectionwas commissioned in June 2014.

Process Controls Specialist ChrisSutherland demonstrates the use of mobiletechnology for instrumentation system fieldmaintenance.


C o v e r S t o r y


11/43

are set to expand significantly. Most of the

rest of the world’s sulfur is traded in the

solid prilled form. Mosaic has, in the past,

predominantly used molten sulfur in its

Florida phosphate operations. However, as

the world sulfur markets change, Mosaic

needs to tap into this expanding world sup-

ply of sulfur to assure cost efficiency and

supply security.

“This project will enable Mosaic to use

a combination of molten and prilled sulfur,”

Wittje continues, “and ensure an economi-

cal and reliable new supply source to fulfill

our obligation to remain a low cost producer

of phosphates for years to come.”

In addition to the supply chain flex-

ibility and commercial advantages that

the melter will bring to Mosaic, the New

Wales facility will now have a substantial

portion of its sulfur coming through the

melter, which comes with a filtration sys-

tem. “Since our current sulfur supply comes

from many varied sources, we have had

little or no control of the quality of sulfur we

receive,” says Wittje. “Having di rect control

of the sulfur quality means opportunities

to reduce the rate of catalyst bed fouling

caused by impurities that come in with the

sulfur. This will be critical to our efforts to

extend the acid plant operating cycles to 36

months and beyond.”

The project is already under construc-

tion and targeted to be operational prior

to the end of 2015. “The sulfur melter

will be the largest in the world when it is

completed, but the facility design has been

optimized for compactness, operational

flexibility, as well as world-class safety and

environmental considerations. By utilizing

a modular approach, the project delivery

method has also been tailored to meet

business objectives as well as to minimizeimpact during construction on a site that

is very active right now,” explains Project

Manager Thomas Dombroski.

Devco, a Tulsa, Oklahoma based engi-

neering and construction firm, has been

awarded a project for a turnkey sulfur melt-

ing plant – including sulfur truck unloading,

storage and melting systems. The origi-

nal project was to melt the sulfur at the

Port of Tampa, but applying the continuous

improvement principles and value stream

mapping, it was determined that it was actu-ally better to melt the sulfur at New Wales.

“New Wales already has steam and

power available,” explains Jim Gruber,

Materials Handling Operations Manager,

who will be running the new melter. “So

there is a substantial reduction in the capi-

tal investment requirements not having to

build a natural gas combustion unit and

boiler to generate steam.” Operating costs

will also be lower because the electricity

requirements will be provided by power

that is generated from energy recoveredfrom the sulfuric acid plants. “This is a

big cost savings in comparison to pur-

chasing power from the utility company.

But best of all,” Gruber continues, “there

is zero environmental impact from the

melter from a carbon footprint standpoint

because the steam and electricity gener-

ated at the New Wales facility adds no

CO2 emissions.”

Moving into the digital age Committed to continuously improv-

ing, New Wales has many other projects

under development that will help ensure

its world class operating status well into

the future. One of the first areas being

targeted is automation. Optimizing plant

performance at New Wales entails keep-

ing up with the technological advances

available to the industry. Several years ago,

New Wales upgraded the 1970s generation

Digital Control System (DCS), but it ended

up being greatly underutilized until a team

of automation technicians were employed to

focus on utilizing the new systems to their

fullest extent.

“The plant was already auto-

mated,” says Drew Evans, Electrical &

Instrumentation (E&I) Supervisor, “but we

had a lot of work making it perform well.”

During the DCS modernization, the

E&I group also combined the two old con-

trol rooms into a single location from which

all five acid plants are run and also installed

dual servers to the controls network to

create the redundancy necessary for 100

percent uptime. Process Controls Specialist

Chris Sutherland is currently completing

the terminal server installations to allow the

integration of mobile devices (iPads) to the

control system networks.

“In addition to these terminal serv-

ers,” explains Sutherland, “we are installing

plant-wide industrial WiFi that will allow

the new sulfur melter to be tied back in

to the control network to increase opera-

tor productivity and flexibility. Ultimately

security protocols will be developed that

will allow integration into the Mosaic net-

works to provide remote monitoring of thecontrols system from mobile devices off the

plant site as well as more integrated access

to real-time management data, operating

procedures and documents.”

The new sulfur melter plant was

designed and staffed based on the f lexibility

afforded to an operator from the integration

of the traditional DCS systems with the lat-

est mobile devices. The new facilities opera-

tors will be able to monitor and control their

plant’s operation from the mobile device

out in the plant, looking at the same DCS

screens they see in the control room. They

can keep an eye on the equipment and watch

the process changes made from their mobile

device happen right before their eyes.

The maintenance reliability group will

enjoy similar efficiencies as a pilot program

using iPads gets underway. “This will be

a paperless system,” says Pearson, “where

a mechanic can walk up to an asset, and,

using his mobile device, input readings,

record inspection results and even order

parts for any necessary repairs that will be

ready for him by the time he goes to the

warehouse to pick them up.”

New Wales’ process engineer-

ing team is also driving improvements

for the future. “These are exciting times

for the process engineering team,” says

Process Engineering Superintendent Nicole

Christiansen. “We are able to do a lot more

than routine support with our active partici-

pation in commissioning and startup of the

HRS and TGs. This type of participation

provides great experiences for our team.

We have been spending a lot of time in

evaluating the best options for the National

Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS)

and have also endeavored on energy optimi-

zation type projects with advanced process

controls and improved steam balancing.”

Process Engineer Crystal Alonso is

working on another project that implements

advanced process controls (APC) to helpmanage steam and power generation. “The

APC system will be custom designed using

“fuzzy logic” that actually teaches itself

how to maximize steam and power genera-

tion from the data it collects monitoring the

plants while they are in operation,” Alonso

explains. Initially the APC will be devel-

oped for the sulfuric acid plant and genera-

tors; then, once this base system is in place,

it will be expanded to incorporate other

areas of the fertilizer complex that impact

power generation.“The New Wales fertilizer complex

uses one million pounds per hour of steam

to evaporate and concentrate phosphor-

ic acid for the manufacture of fertilizer,”

Alonso continues. “The expanded APC

model will be used to maximize phosphoric

acid concentration in the reactor, increase

evaporator operating efficiencies and clean-

ing cycles, and manage acid tank farm

inventories to balance out the instantaneous

evaporator loading—all of this to maximize

the amount of steam available for co-gener-

ation. The model will be further expanded

to include fertilizer production planning

since the different fertilizer products require

different concentrations of phosphoric acid,

which changes the steam demand on the

evaporators. Ultimately, the mine process-

ing plants, which rely on power generated at

New Wales, will be included in the model

to determine the best operating rates and

outage schedules between the complexes—

all with the goal of maximizing the power

generation at New Wales.”

To support the plant’s existing automa-tion team, Theresa Rowe is taking on a new

role as Process Controls Engineer. “Initially

we will start with the existing DCS process

controls, clean up the alarm systems and

tune up all of the control loops to make

life easier for the plant operators,” Rowe

explains. “Then we’ll move on to develop-

ing the higher level process control schemes

to better operate all of the plant’s systems

and fully utilize the capabilities of the APC

system that Crystal (Alonso) is working on.”

The advancements in automation andprocess controls provide great contrast to

the way things used to be at New Wales.

“The first superintendent I worked for once

told me about the original sulfuric acid

plants built in the 1960s at Mosaic’s South

Pierce site,” recalls Dougherty. “There

were no automated controls at all, and the

control panel consisted of motor run lights,

start/stop buttons and a few chart recorders

for the furnace and converter temperatures.

The only process variable controlled from

inside the control room was the acid dilu-tion water. There was a water pipe that

came through the back wall to a rotometer

and a valve monitor to adjust the flow.

Everything else was manual valves and gas

dampers out in the field and hand written

paper log sheets.”

“By the time these new process con-

trols, automation and APC projects are

completed,” Dougherty says, “the way we

will operate the plants wouldn’t even be

recognizable to acid plant operators of past

generations. And today’s operators wouldn’tbe able to run the plants to the standards we

expect without them.”

Moving toward the future With a strong belief in its future and

a commitment to its goals, Mosaic’s New

Wales sulfuric acid team has accomplished

more in the past five years than in the previ-

ous 20 years. At the core of this success has

been a willingness to take a continuous-

improvement approach, looking at everyarea of the business for ways to improve.

No stone was left unturned. With each new

improvement, the sulfuric acid plants pro-

vide an ever greater contribution to the New

Wales bottom line and Mosaic’s future suc-

cess, and continue to maintain their world

class status for the 21st century. q

The HRS system’s teflon lined acid dilutionvessel.

The high efficiency HRS designs at New Walesinclude a heater and pre-heater to recoveradditional energy from the high temperatureacid and pre-heat HRS boiler feed water.


C ov er S t or y

MARKET OUTLOOK


12/43

In 2014, Argus estimates around 239

million tons of sulfuric acid were produced

on a global basis, of which around 147

million tons, or 62 percent, was produced

through the burning of elemental sulfur. The

majority of sulfur-based acid is produced at

plants located close to end-use fertilizer

production and for industrial applications

including metallurgical leaching.

Around 72 million tons, or 31 percent,

of sulfuric acid was produced as involuntaryand generally unwanted by-product of the

smelting industry, through the smelting of

non-ferrous base metals like copper, nickel,

lead and zinc. This is what makes up the

majority of merchant sulfuric acid traded

in the market.

The remaining 20 million tons,

or 7 percent, of global sulfuric acid

production was through pyrite roasting

in China. Roasting of pyrites has been

eliminated in most other regions because

of environmental concerns surrounding the

process.

A minimal amount of acid is produced

from spent acid regeneration. This process

involves the regeneration of acid produced

within an oil refinery which is then

processed off-site before being sent back

in purified form to the refiner to be used inthe production of refined products.

By 2020, Argus has forecast global

sulfuric acid production to reach 256

million tons, with around 162 million tons,

or 63 percent, to be produced through

sulfur burning. Production from base

metals smelting will account for 74 million

tons, or 30 percent, while the remaining 20

million tons, or 7 percent, will be produced

through pyrite roasting in China.

As the forecast volumes reflect,

sulfuric acid production from elemental

sulfur will account for a larger proportion

of total production than it has in the past.

Drivers for this include the benefit of

creation of by-product energy through the

cogeneration process. A surplus of sulfur is

forecast to emerge in 2015 following tight

supply from 2010-2014. The emergence of a

sulfur surplus will result in lower operating

costs for sulfur-based producers. As a

result, operations that require significant

amounts of sulfuric acid are opting to

develop internal sulfur-based production

capacity rather than rely on purchasing

from the merchant market.

In terms of demand, consumption of

sulfuric acid closely matches production.

Since sulfuric acid is liquid, storage ability

and transportation methods are limited.

Essentially for this reason, the market must

balance itself.

Looking ahead, demand for sulfuric

acid to support fertilizer production will

increase because of the need to producemore products to help feed a growing

population with improving dietary needs.

In 2015 and beyond, new sulfur-based

sulfuric acid capacity to support fertilizer

production is being added in China,

Indonesia, Malaysia, Morocco, Turkey,

Saudi Arabia and Brazil.

Industrial demand for sulfuric acid

is widespread for the so called “king of

chemicals,” with over 250 applications

identified according to The Sulfur Institute

(TSI). Major industrial uses include

metal leaching, caprolactam production,

feed-grade phosphates, hydrofluoric acid

production, titanium dioxide production,

pulp and paper production, water treatment

and ethanol production.

Ore leaching represents the largest

non-fertilizer consumption sector. As anindicator of the importance of the metal

leach sector, Chile is the largest importer of

sulfuric acid to support copper production.

Its imports in 2005 were around 340,000

tons, before increasing significantly to

close to over 1 million tons by 2008 and

peaking at just over 3 million tons in 2012.

New sulfur-based sulfuric acid

capacity to support metal leaching

commenced operations in Mexico in 2014

and additional capacity is planned for

Cuba for 2016 startup. This follows an

increase in sulfur-based production since

2011 to support metal leaching in Chile,

Madagascar and Papua New Guinea.

As indicated, there will also be an

increase in sulfuric acid produced through

smelting, adding additional supply to the

merchant market. In 2014, new capacity

came on stream in Serbia and in Chile

(through roasting of arsenic concentrates).

In 2015 and beyond, new capacity will start

up in China, Zambia, Namibia and most

likely Indonesia, and expansions will be

seen in the Philippines and South Korea.

On the other hand, there will be a loss

of supply in some regions. For example, in

Australia the Mount Isa smelter is slated

to be closed in 2017, although there is

the potential this could be extended. At

the same time, the Port Pirie smelter will

expand its production capacity in 2017,

helping counterbalance some of the loss

from Mount Isa.

In the United States, PotashCorp(PCS) will curtail sulfur-based sulfuric

acid production at its Geismar, La., facility

in the second quarter 2015. This will result

in the need for acid to be purchased in the

merchant market to fulfill demand rather

than use internally-produced product. This

is expected to tighten supply in the U.S.

Gulf coast region and allow for a higher

volume of offshore imports. This marks

the second closure by PCS, who idled

capacity at its White Springs, Fla., facility

in July 2014. Then in late 2014, Mississippi

Phosphates idled production of phosphate

fertilizer and associated sulfur-based

sulfuric acid at its Pascagoula operation.

The PCS closure at White Springs and

the Mississippi Phosphates closure are not

expected to have a significant impact on

the traded sulfuric acid market, as acid wasproduced on-site for internal consumption.

It will, however, result in reduced sulfur

consumption in the United States. In

addition, Mississippi Phosphates was a

regular importer of sulfuric acid from

offshore sources, mainly Europe, but the

expected need for import material to cover

the Geismar closure should counterbalance

that loss of demand.

Meanwhile, by-product sulfuric acid

production will increase in the United

States with the 2016 start up of the

Mississippi Power project, which will

create sulfuric acid through a gasification

process. In 2017, Freeport-McMoran will

expand smelter capacity at its Miami,

Ariz., facility.

In Canada, which supplies around

2 million tons per year of sulfuric acid

to the United States, a loss of production

is forecast from two smelting operations

in 2017-2018, although the exact loss in

volume is unquantified at present and

subject to change.

While there is an increase in sulfuric

acid demand forecast that would be met

by supply from the merchant market, it is

most significant in the Latin American

region and would effectively alter trade

flows there. New leach projects in Chile

will require sulfuric acid, but at the same

time some facilities are forecast to close.

This will ultimately reduce Chile’s overall

import requirements, but a change in Peru

will mean it will have less sulfuric acid

to supply Chile. Historically, Peru has

supplied around 1 million tons per year to

Chile to support copper leaching. In 2014,

Peru supplied Chile with 1.1 million tons,

or 52 percent, of its import volume. In 2017,

Southern Copper is expected to commence

operation of its Tia Maria copper project in

Peru, which will consume around 720,000

tons per year of sulfuric acid after ramping

up. As a result, Peru will have less to

supply to Chile. Although Chile’s overall

requirements will be lower, it will mean

demand for sulfuric acid from alternative

markets, such as South Korea and Japan,

will remain intact.

As this article has examined, there are

several factors impacting the outlook for

the sulfuric acid market in terms of both

losses and gains in supply and demand. In

the end, the market will have to balance

itself because of the limited storage options

for sulfuric acid. In the event demand does

not keep pace with supply, prices will have

to be reduced in order to keep product

moving.

Argus Media publishes weeklyglobal reports on sulfur and sulfuric acid

as well as reports on fertilizer-related

products including nitrogen, ammonia,

potash and phosphate. North American-

specific publications for both fertilizers

and the sulfur/sulfuric acid markets are

also available. Argus also offers consulting

services, including single-client studies and

presentation service for sulfur and sulfuric

acid supported by our proprietary supply

and demand model. For more information

on Argus and its portfolio of fertilizer

publications, please vis it www.argusmedia.

com/fertilizer. q

By: Fiona Boyd, Argus Media

Global sulfuric acid—supply and demand outlook


F e a t u r e

MARKET OUTLOOK


13/43


14/43

Weir Minerals Lewis Pumps’ verti-

cal pumps, used in molten sulfur, sulfuric

acid and oleum applications, are typically

installed with a packed stuffing box. This

type of sealing arrangement works well

because the packing is exposed only to the

pressure inside the vessel and the pumped

fluid never reaches the top of the stuffing

box. Another feature of these pumps is a

by-pass in the shaft column. Through this

by-pass component, the circulating fluid

lubricates the wetted bearing(s) and then

returns to the tank or suction side of the

pump. This arrangement prevents liquid

pressurization at the stuffing box.

In the sulfur and sulfuric acid indus-

tries, the wide use of pumps manufactured

by Weir Minerals Lewis Pumps is due, in

part, to their reputable trouble-free vertical

packing seal design. In molten sulfur appli-

cations, the pump design prevents leakage

and solidification of product that inherently

occurs when using a horizontal pump. In

sulfuric acid applications, the packing has

to prevent hazardous fumes from being re-

leased into the atmosphere. One method of

preventing emission of fumes is to induce

a slight vacuum on the acid tanks. It is im-

portant to keep the vacuum on the tank toa minimum to keep moist atmospheric air

from entering the system as this could lead

to the entrance of moist air in the pump/

tank, which can then cause build-up of

iron sulfate and highly corrosive weak acid

(Fig. 1).

When using the deep stuffing box ar-

rangement, it is recommended to use dry

air or nitrogen at 2-5 SCFM at a pressure of

2-3 Psi (15-25 kPa) above the tank’s pres-

sure, in order to eliminate fume emissions

from the deep stuffing boxes. Emissions

can be eliminated when tank pressures

are higher than atmospheric pressure. The

fume containment arrangement, as shown

in Fig. 2, prevents the acid fumes from be-

ing emitted to the environment and also

prevents moist atmospheric air from enter-

ing the pump.

There are certain conditions under

which the packing arrangement is not ad-

equate. One such condition is when the

pressure in the pump tank or tower exceedsatmospheric pressure and the pressure rat-

ing of the packing. Pressure on the packing

is not to exceed 60 inches of water column

(2.5–3 Psi gauge). Many acid plants have

higher tower pressures that qualify for a

mechanical seal rather than the packing a r-

rangement. However, before changing out

all of the deep stuffing box arrangements

for the higher pressure accommodating

mechanical seals, keep in mind that me-chanical seals present their own challenges.

Some of the most common issues are: sen-

sitivity to installation errors; damage due

to improper handling; lack of resistance

to thermal shock; high cost; more time

consuming to replace; gas cooling/gas lu-

brication required to prevent damage; and

susceptibility to mechanical damage due to

misalignment, cavitation, shaft deflection

or shaft run out.Weir Minerals Lewis Pumps has

multiple mechanical seal options, such as

single mechanical seal graphite or tungsten

carbide. Still another common option is a

cartridge dual mechanical seal kit. Other

seal options have been provided, depending

on the application and requirements. For

any of these options, using clean dry air or

nitrogen for cooling the seal is necessary.

The pressure of the air or gas needs to be

2-3 Psig above the maximum tank pressure.

Gas lubrication will need to be provided to

the seal at al l times, otherwise sulfuric acid

fumes can damage the seal components.

When selecting appropriate mechani-

cal seal materials that are chemically

compatible with the different acid con-

centrations and temperatures, the pump

design must be done within seal and pump

manufacturer tolerances and guidelines. It

is recommended that Weir Minerals Lewis

Pumps determine the selection and design

of the pump and mechanical seal. When

using a mechanical seal, shaft deflection

and run out are key factors that have to beconsidered to ensure trouble free operation

of the pump and long, useful life of the me-

chanical seal.

In summary, Weir Minerals Lewis

Pumps vertical pumps can be used in most

applications with just the packed stuffing

box arrangement. Molten sulfur and stan-

dard sulfuric applications are mainly han-

dled with this type of seal set-up. The ver-

tical pump design prevents product fromreaching the stuffing box. Weir Minerals

Lewis Pumps recommends the installation

of the fume containment dry air purge, as

illustrated in Fig. 2, to prevent air entrain-

ment and fume emissions. For applications

where the differential pressure on the pack-

ing is greater than 2-3 Psig above atmo-

spheric pressure, the packing seal arrange-

ment will not be an option. The higher

pressures will demand that a mechanical,gas-lubricated seal be integrated within the

pump to handle the additional pressures.

For further information, please con-

tact Martha Villasenor of Weir Miner-

als Lewis Pumps at martha.villasenor@

weirminerals.com or (314) 272-6218. q

Delivering Ultimate Corrosion ProtectionWithin 48 hours after pouring, Sauereisen polymer concrete delivers unparalleled

strength, durability and chemical resistance. It exhibits five times the compressive

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magazine of the sulfuric acid today spring/summer 2015

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