Organics Removal Achieved in a Fertilizer Plant with No Brine Squeezing

A fertilizer plant in Canada was using a pretreatment clarifier for its source river water. Water analysis revealed moderate to high levels of silica and Total Organic Carbon (TOC) depending on the season. The plant’s system was made up of three trains of strong acid cation vessels, strong base anions, and mixed bed vessels. Short anion run lengths were a major issue and the plant demands for boiler feedwater were too strict to allow operations to perform brine squeezes on the anions.

The plant’s steam chief attended a tradeshow conference at which he spoke to Purolite about the problems he was facing. This meeting was quickly followed up with an on-site visit to the fertilizer plant by the Purolite technical specialist. The incumbent anion resin was anion limited causing the time between regenerations to be very short. Additionally, their current ion exchange resin supplier was unable to replace the resin in under six months.

The Purolite technical specialist suggested the use of Purofine® PFA870 anion resin as a solution to the plant’s high levels of silica and TOC concentrations. This resin is specialized for improved anion performance and high regeneration efficiency, without the requirement of brine squeezing. Further, due to the proximity of the Purolite warehouse, the resin stock was able to be delivered within two weeks of an order placement. The plant was also provided with precise loading instructions for the resin trains.

After making the switch to Purofine® PFA870 resin, the fertilizer plant noted a substantially increased anion run-time length of over 290%.

The steam chief was so impressed by the product that he purchased a second train of the anion as well as an additional train of mixed bed resins from Purolite. The steam chief noted that “PFA870 saves me not only in regeneration costs on my anions and mixed beds, but reduces the work load on my operations group as well.”

The fertilizer plant will continue to use and recommend Purolite to other potential clients. They have reported no problems with the resin and have not had to brine squeeze the anions.

Why Purolite?

• Competitive supply management

• Effective products

• Local sales and service team