CRUDE OIL REFINERY

An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial process plant where crude oil is processed
and refined into more useful products such as petroleum naphtha, gasoline, diesel fuel, asphalt
base, heating oil, kerosene, and liquefied petroleum gas.
Oil refineries are typically large, sprawling industrial complexes with extensive piping running
throughout, carrying streams of fluids between large chemical processing units. In many ways,
oil refineries use much of the technology of, and can be thought of, as types of chemical plants.
The crude oil feedstock has typically been processed by an oil production plant. There is usually
an oil depot (tank farm) at or near an oil refinery for storage of bulk liquid products.
An oil refinery is considered an essential part of the downstream side of the petroleum industry.

Process Operation of an Oil Refinery

Crude oil is separated into fractions by fractional distillation. The fractions at the top of the
fractionating column have lower boiling points than the fractions at the bottom. The heavy
bottom fractions are often cracked into lighter, more useful products. All of the fractions are
processed further in other refining units.
Raw or unprocessed ("crude") oil is not useful in the form it comes in out of the ground.
Although "light, sweet" (low viscosity, low sulfur) oil has been used directly as a burner fuel for
steam vessel propulsion, the lighter elements form explosive vapors in the fuel tanks and so it is
quite dangerous, especially so in warships. For this and many other uses, the oil needs to be
separated into parts and refined before use in fuels and lubricants, and before some of the
byproducts could be used in petrochemical processes to form materials such as plastics,
detergents, solvents, elastomers, and fibers such as nylon and polyesters. Petroleum fossil fuels
are used in ship, automobile and aircraft engines. These different hydrocarbons have different
boiling points, which means they can be separated by distillation. Since the lighter liquid
elements are in great demand for use in internal combustion engines, a modern refinery will
convert heavy hydrocarbons and lighter gaseous elements into these higher value products using
complex and energy intensive processes.
Hydrocarbons are molecules of varying length and complexity made of only hydrogen and
carbon atoms. Their various structures give them their differing properties and thereby uses. The
trick in the oil refinement process is separating and purifying these.

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Once separated and purified of any contaminants and impurities, the fuel or lubricant can be sold
without any further processing. Smaller molecules such as isobutane and propylene or butylenes
can be recombined to meet specific octane requirements of fuels by processes such as alkylation
or less commonly, dimerization. Octane grade of gasoline can also be improved by catalytic
reforming, which strips hydrogen out of hydrocarbons to produce aromatics, which have much
higher octane ratings. Intermediate products such as gasoils can even be reprocessed to break a
heavy, long-chained oil into a lighter short-chained one, by various forms of cracking such as
fluid catalytic cracking, thermal cracking, and hydrocracking. The final step in gasoline
production is the blending of fuels with different octane ratings, vapor pressures, and other
properties to meet product specifications.
Oil refineries are large scale plants, processing from about a hundred thousand to several
hundred thousand barrels of crude oil per day. Because of the high capacity, many of the units
are operated continuously (as opposed to processing in batches) at steady state or approximately
steady state for long periods of time (months to years). This high capacity also makes process
optimization and advanced process control very desirable.

Major products of oil refineries

Most products of oil processing are usually grouped into three categories: light distillates (LPG,
gasoline, naphtha), middle distillates (kerosene, diesel), heavy distillates and residuum (fuel oil,
lubricating oils, wax, tar).
This classification is based on the way crude oil is distilled and separated into fractions (called
distillates and residuum) as can be seen in the above drawing.

• Liquid petroleum gas (LPG)

• Gasoline (also known as petrol)
• Naphtha
• Kerosene and related jet aircraft fuels
• Diesel fuel
• Fuel oils
• Lubricating oils
• Paraffin wax
• Asphalt and Tar
• Petroleum coke

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Common process units found in a refinery
The number and nature of the process units in a refinery determine its complexity index.
• Desalter unit washes out salt from the crude oil before it enters the atmospheric distillation unit.
• Atmospheric Distillation unit distills crude oil into fractions.
• Vacuum Distillation unit further distills residual bottoms after atmospheric distillation.
• Naphtha Hydrotreater unit uses hydrogen to desulfurize naphtha from atmospheric distillation.
Must hydrotreat the naphtha before sending to a Catalytic Reformer unit.
• Catalytic Reformer unit is used to convert the naphtha-boiling range molecules into higher
octane reformate (reformer product). The reformate has higher content of aromatics, olefins, and
cyclic hydrocarbons). An important byproduct of a reformer is hydrogen released during the
catalyst reaction.The hydrogen is used either in the hydrotreaters or the hydrocracker.
• Distillate Hydrotreater unit desulfurizes distillates (such as diesel) after atmospheric
distillation.
• Fluid Catalytic Cracker (FCC) unit upgrades heavier fractions into lighter, more valuable
products.
• Hydrocracker unit uses hydrogen to upgrade heavier fractions into lighter, more valuable
products.
• Visbreaking unit upgrades heavy residual oils by thermally cracking them into lighter, more
valuable reduced viscosity products.
• Merox unit treats LPG, kerosene or jet fuel by oxidizing mercaptans to organic disulfides.
• Coking units (delayed coking, fluid coker, and flexicoker) process very heavy residual oils into
gasoline and diesel fuel, leaving petroleum coke as a residual product.
• Alkylation unit produces high-octane component for gasoline blending.
• Dimerization unit converts olefins into higher-octane gasoline blending components. For
example, butenes can be dimerized into isooctene which may subsequently be hydrogenated to
form isooctane. There are also other uses for dimerization.
• Isomerization unit converts linear molecules to higher-octane branched molecules for blending
into gasoline or feed to alkylation units.
• Steam reforming unit produces hydrogen for the hydrotreaters or hydrocracker.
• Liquified gas storage units for propane and similar gaseous fuels at pressure sufficient to
maintain in liquid form. These are usually spherical vessels or bullets (horizontal vessels with
rounded ends.

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• Storage tanks for crude oil and finished products, usually cylindrical, with some sort of vapor
emission control and surrounded by an earthen berm to contain spills.
• Amine gas treater, Claus unit, and tail gas treatment for converting hydrogen sulfide from
hydrodesulfurization into elemental sulfur.
• Utility units such as cooling towers for circulating cooling water, boiler plants for steam
generation, instrument air systems for pneumatically operated control valves and an electrical
substation.
• Wastewater collection and treating systems consisting of API separators, dissolved air flotation
(DAF) units and some type of further treatment (such as an activated sludge biotreater) to make
such water suitable for reuse or for disposal.
• Solvent refining units use solvent such as cresol or furfural to remove unwanted, mainly
asphaltenic materials from lubricating oil stock (or diesel stock).
• Solvent dewaxing units remove the heavy waxy constituents petrolatum from vacuum
distillation products.

The Crude Oil Distillation Unit

The crude oil distillation unit (CDU) is the first processing unit in virtually all petroleum
refineries. The CDU distills the incoming crude oil into various fractions of different boiling
ranges, each of which are then processed further in the other refinery processing units. The CDU
is often referred to as the atmospheric distillation unit because it operates at slightly above
atmospheric pressure.
Below is a schematic flow diagram of a typical crude oil distillation unit. The incoming crude oil
is preheated by exchanging heat with some of the hot, distilled fractions and other streams. It is
then desalted to remove inorganic salts (primarily sodium chloride).
Following the desalter, the crude oil is further heated by exchanging heat with some of the hot,
distilled fractions and other streams. It is then heated in a fuel-fired furnace (fired heater) to a
temperature of about 398 °C and routed into the bottom of the distillation unit.
The cooling and condensing of the distillation tower overhead is provided partially by
exchanging heat with the incoming crude oil and partially by either an air-cooled or water-cooled
condenser. Additional heat is removed from the distillation column by a pumparound system as
shown in the diagram below.
As shown in the flow diagram, the overhead distillate fraction from the distillation column is
naphtha. The fractions removed from the side of the distillation column at various points
between the column top and bottom are called sidecuts. Each of the sidecuts (i.e., the kerosene,
light gas oil and heavy gas oil) is cooled by exchanging heat with the incoming crude oil. All of
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the fractions (i.e., the overhead naphtha, the sidecuts and the bottom residue) are sent to
intermediate storage tanks before being processed further.

Schematic flow diagram of a typical crude oil distillation unit as used in petroleum crude oil
refineries.

Flow diagram of a typical refinery

The image below is a schematic flow diagram of a typical petroleum refinery that depicts the
various refining processes and the flow of intermediate product streams that occurs between the
inlet crude oil feedstock and the final end-products.
The diagram depicts only one of the literally hundreds of different oil refinery configurations.
The diagram also does not include any of the usual refinery facilities providing utilities such as

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steam, cooling water, and electric power as well as storage tanks for crude oil feedstock and for
intermediate products and end products.

A schematic flow diagram of a typical petroleum refinery.

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Types, Energy Requirements and The Engineering Problems
involved in the management of materials of Oil Refineries in
Nigeria
There are two refineries at Alesa-Eleme, near Port Harcourt in Nigeria's southernmost province,
Rivers State. The refineries were originally known as Port Harcourt I and Port Harcourt II, but in
1993 the distillation column and tankage at Port Harcourt I was connected to the Vacuum unit
and FCC at Port Harcourt II, and the operation of the refinery was integrated, and operated under
one management.
In 1965 Shell/BP built Port Harcourt I as a topping and reforming refinery with a distillation
capacity of 3 million mt/yr (60,000 bpd). In 1977 the Nigerian Government partially nationalised
the oil industry, taking a 60% interest in all operations including the refinery.
Port Harcourt II was built as a complex refinery with a distillation capacity of 7.5 million mt/yr
(150,000 bpd). It came on stream in 1989. It ran well until 1993 when frequent utility plant
failures caused regular shutdowns that resulted in equipment damage. The situation deteriorated
rapidly from 1994 when the military government cut NNPC’s “take” from the domestic sales
price of oil products from 84% to 22%, causing a cash crisis, and a virtual halt to most
maintenance work.
Crude supply to both refineries is 100% Bonny Light, supplied by pipeline from the Shell
operated Bonny field.
Port Harcourt refinery performance has been consistently poor over the past 10 years, only rising
above 50% on 4 occasions. From 1993 to 1998 the main problem was PH I that did not operate at
all. After operating between 1999 and 2002 it has ceased operations since.
The Eleme Petrochemical plant, which was built adjacent to the Port Harcourt refinery in 1995,
has an Olefin production capacity of 483,000 mt/yr, a Polypropylene capacity of 80,000 mt/yr,
and a Polyethylene production capacity of 250,000 mt/yr. Like the refinery it has suffered from
many technical problems, and has only functioned at l production levels of less than 40%.
The Warri refinery, located at Warri in Nigeria's Delta State, is a complex refinery with a
distillation capacity of 6.3 million mt/yr (125,000 bpd). The refinery came on stream in 1978. It
is managed jointly with a petrochemicals plant built in 1986 to produce 35,000 mt/yr of
polypropylene and 18,000 mt/yr of carbon black.
The refinery crude supply is from the ChevronTexaco Escravos fields offshore Warri, and from
onshore fields operated by Shell, ChevronTexaco and others. The pipeline to Kaduna refinery
from the Chevron Escravos terminal passes through Warri refinery, and the crude supply to the
two refineries is largely interlinked. Evacuation of products is by the refinery truck loading rack,
by products pipeline, and by ship from the 2 refinery jetties about 1Km from the refinery.

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Loading and discharging at the jetties is limited to small vessels due to the 150 M LOA
restrictions, and the shallow draft in the river and at the Escravos river bar.
Warri refinery suffered badly when the Abacha government cut the NNPC portion of the pump
price from 83% to 22% in 1994. The Military government raised the price from N3.25/ltr to
11N/ltr in the face of massive Naira devaluation on the parallel market (the official rate was
pegged at 22 until 1995), but kept the NNPC allowance the same. As most of the refinery
maintenance costs were for imported spare parts, very little maintenance was carried out, and
serious breakdowns -occurred. In 1998 the new civilian government ordered massive investment
to remedy the problems, and a $200 million turnaround started in early 2000. This led to a
significant improvement in throughput, although FCC performance has been erratic. In 2003 the
refinery was caught up in the tribal unrest in the delta region, and the crude supply pipeline was
cut by sabotage for much of the year so throughput was only around 30% capacity.
The Kaduna refinery, in northern Nigeria, is a complex refinery with a distillation capacity of 5.5
million mt /yr (110,000 bpd). The first 50,000 bpd unit, built in 1980, was a fuels unit designed
to run light Nigerian crude. It was later revamped to 60,000bpd by the addition of a pre-flash
unit. In 1982, a 50,000 bpd sour crude unit was built, designed to provide feed to a lube baseoil
manufacturing plant, an asphalt plant, and an Linear Alkyl Benzate (LAB) plant. The plant was
initially designed to run Venezuelan crude, but was later re-certified to produce lubes from Arab
Light crude.
In 1987 the LAB plant was started up. The plant can manufacture 30,000 mt/year of LAB,
15,000 mt/year of benzene, and 30,000 mt/year of kero solvent, but has not operated since 1998.
A drum plant was also installed, and a 6,000 bpd asphalt blowing unit.
The refinery has been plagued by technical malfunctions and breakdowns, and suffers from
being in a location at the end of an insecure pipeline that is remote from the crude supply. In July
1997, after many years of low throughput, the refinery suffered a total shutdown following a
serious fire, and did not restart until 1999.
In 1997 a major contract valued at $215 million was awarded to Total International to handle
repair of specific parts of the refinery and to rebuild the depleted spare parts inventory. This
project was fraught with difficulties for Total resulting from exaggerated expectations, diversion
of funds, and numerous local problems. Both CDU’s restarted in 1999. However there has been
no regular sour crude supply since 1992, and since 1998 the sour crude unit has not operated due
to lack of crude feed.
The sweet crude unit operated reasonably well between 1999 and 2002, but a fire in a crude
heater in October 2002 caused a capacity loss. In 2003 throughput is estimated to be around 30%
of capacity, mainly due to problems on the crude pipeline. The FCC has operated at less than
10% capacity since 1999.
A 500KM pipeline from Warri refinery supplies the crude to KPRC. Most of the sweet crude is
sourced from the ChevronTexaco Escravos fields, but about 20,000 bpd comes from the Ughelli

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field that is supplied via a spur that joins the line north of Warri refinery. The pipeline crosses a
number of rivers and other obstacles, and is constantly being ruptured by both natural and man-
made causes. The Arab Light sour crude is imported through an SBM at Escravos (currently out
of service) into NNPC constructed storage tanks behind the ChevronTexaco facilities. Prior to
1992 the supply of Arab Light crude was supplied in exchange for Forcados, and this contract
was much sought after by traders.
During political unrest in the delta in 2003, the pipeline from Escravos to Warri was sabotaged
and blown apart in many places. NNPC ordered repairs to the line, but it was out of commission
from April to December, and then had further problems. The refinery can still receive small
quantities of Ughelli crude, but this only allows it to operate sporadically.

Siting/locating of petroleum refineries

The principles of finding a construction site for refineries are similar to those for other chemical
plants:
• The site has to be reasonably far from residential areas.
• Facilities for raw materials access and products delivery to markets should be easily available.
• Processing energy requirements should be easily available.
• Waste product disposal should not cause difficulties.
For refineries which use large amounts of process steam and cooling water, an abundant source
of water is important. Because of this, oil refineries are often located (associated to a port) near
navigable rivers or even better on a sea shore. Either are of dual purpose, making also available
cheap transport by river or by sea.
Although the advantages of crude oil transport by pipeline are evident, and the method is also
often used by oil companies to deliver large output products such as fuels to their bulk
distribution terminals, pipeline delivery is not practical for small output products. For these, rail
cars, road tankers or barges may be used.
It is useful to site refineries in areas where there is abundant space to be used by the same
company or others, for the construction of petrochemical plants, solvent manufacturing (fine
fractionating) plants and/or similar plants to allow these easy access to large output refinery
products for further processing, or plants that produce chemical additives that the refinery may
need to blend into a product at source rather than at blending terminals.

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Safety and Environmental Concerns
The refining process releases numerous different chemicals into the atmosphere; consequently,
there are substantial air pollution emissions and a notable odor normally accompanies the
presence of a refinery. Aside from air pollution impacts there are also wastewater concerns, risks
of industrial accidents such as fire and explosion, and noise health effects due to industrial noise.
The public has demanded that many governments place restrictions on contaminants that
refineries release, and most refineries have installed the equipment needed to comply with the
requirements of the pertinent environmental protection regulatory agencies. In the United States,
there is strong pressure to prevent the development of new refineries, and no major refinery has
been built in the country since Marathon's Garyville, Louisiana facility in 1976. However, many
existing refineries have been expanded during that time.
Environmental restrictions and pressure to prevent construction of new refineries may have also
contributed to rising fuel prices in the United States.
Additionally, many refineries (over 100 since the 1980s) have closed due to obsolescence and/or
merger activity within the industry itself. This activity has been reported to Congress and in
specialized studies not widely publicised.
Environmental and safety concerns mean that oil refineries are sometimes located some distance
away from major urban areas. Nevertheless, there are many instances where refinery operations
are close to populated areas and
pose health risks such as in the Campo de Gibraltar, a CEPSA refinery near the towns of
Gibraltar, Algeciras, La Linea, San Roque and Los Barrios with a combined population of over
300,000 residents within a 5-mile (8.0 km) radius and the CEPSA refinery in Santa Cruz on the
island of Tenerife, Spain which is sited in a denselypopulated city center and next to the only two
major evacuation routes in and out of the city. In California's Contra Costa County and Solano
County, a shoreline necklace of refineries and associated chemical plants are adjacent to urban
areas in Richmond, Martinez, Pacheco, Concord, Pittsburg, Vallejo and Benicia, with occasional
accidental events that require "shelter in place" orders to the adjacent populations.

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 PETROCHEMICAL PLANTS

A refinery processes crude oil into different components such as kerosene, gasoline, diesel, LPG
(light petroleum gases), etc. A petrochemical plant on the other hand is a chemical plant that will
use a petroleum based feedstock, such as LPG or other products from a petroleum refinery to
produce a chemical product, such as plastics for example.
Chemical and petrochemical plants are utilized to convert natural resources (e.g. crude oil,
natural gas, ores and minerals) into products for a variety of applications.
Petrochemical plants produce the bulk building blocks like ethylene, propylene and aromatics
from fossil resources, which in further processes are transferred into plastic materials of a broad
range of qualities, properties and applications and base products for the chemical industry..
These plants are a challenge with respect to complexity and scale, which has been increased
significantly in the last decade.

Petrochemical Plant in The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Petrochemicals
Petrochemicals are chemical products derived from petroleum. Some chemical compounds made
from petroleum are also obtained from other fossil fuels, such as coal or natural gas, or
renewable sources such as corn or sugar cane.
Global ethylene and propylene production are ~115 million tonnes and ~70 million tonnes per
annum, respectively. Aromatics production is ~70 million tonnes. The largest petrochemical

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industries are located in the USA and Western Europe; however, major growth in new
production capacity is in the Middle East and Asia. There is substantial inter-regional
petrochemical trade.
Primary petrochemicals are divided into three groups depending on their chemical structure:
 Olefins includes ethylene, propylene, and butadiene. Ethylene and propylene are
important sources of industrial chemicals and plastics products. Butadiene is used in
making synthetic rubber.
 Aromatics includes benzene, toluene, and xylenes. Benzene is a raw material for dyes and
synthetic detergents, and benzene and toluene for isocyanates MDI and TDI used in
makingpolyurethanes. Manufacturers use xylenes to produce plastics and synthetic fibers.
 Synthesis gas is a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen used to
make ammonia and methanol. Ammonia is used to make the fertilizer urea and methanol is used
as a solvent and chemical intermediate.

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Petrochemical plant feedstock sources

Petrochemical feedstock sources.

The diagram above schematically depicts the major hydrocarbon sources used in producing
petrochemicals are:
 Methane, ethane, propane and butanes: Obtained primarily from natural gas processing
plants.
 Naphtha obtained from petroleum refineries.
 Benzene, toluene and xylenes, as a whole referred to as BTX and primarily obtained from
petroleum refineries by extraction from the reformate produced in catalytic reformers.
 Gas oil obtained from petroleum refineries.
Methane and BTX are used directly as feedstocks for producing petrochemicals. However, the
ethane, propane, butanes, naphtha and gas oil serve as optional feedstocks for steam-
assisted thermal cracking plants referred to assteam crackers that produce these intermediate
petrochemical feedstocks:
 Ethylene
 Propylene
 Butenes and butadiene
 Benzene

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In 2007, the amounts of ethylene and propylene produced in steam crackers were about 115
Mt (megatonnes) and 70 Mt, respectively. The output ethylene capacity of large steam crackers
ranged up to as much as 1.0 – 1.5 Mt per year.
Steam crackers are not to be confused with steam reforming plants used to
produce hydrogen and ammonia.

Types, Energy Requirements and The Engineering Problems

involved in the management of materials of PetroChemical
Plants in Nigeria

Nigeria has a robust petrochemical sector that has been evolving over the last fifteen years. The
petrochemical industry is focused around the three centres located at Kaduna, Warri and Eleme.
The Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company (KRPC) operates the complex Kaduna
refinery located in northern Nigeria. The refinery produces linear alkyl benzene, benzene, and
kerosene solvents. KRPC is a subsidiary of NNPC. During the 1990’s there have been numerous
stoppages at the Kaduna refinery and in October 1999 there was strong evidence that the Kaduna
refinery was in substantial trouble.
The Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company (WRPC) has a complex 125,000 bpd refinery.
The petrochemical plant produces polypropylene and carbon black. Stoppages and equipment
failure have resulted in falling outputs.
The Eleme Petrochemical Company is a subsidiary of NNPC. It has been developing the Eleme
Petrochemical plant, a project which will boost the petrochemical industry substantially. Phase I
of the Eleme Petrochemicals Complex came into operation in 1995, and, since then, has
generated $130 milllion from the sale of products. It is associated with the two Port Harcourt
refineries at Alesa-Eleme.
In May 1999, a second petrochemical plant was inaugurated representing phase II of the
petrochemicals project. The complex has an ethylene plant and subsidiary plants producing
polyethylene, ethylene glycol, polypropylene and polyvinyl chloride. In 1999, phase I of the
Eleme petrochemical plant was producing at 60% capacity for polypropolylene and 50 percent
for polyethylene. The two-billion-US-dollar petrochemicals project phase II is expected to
produce over 40 different grades each of polyethylene and polypropylene products used in
industial productions.

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Other projects include an integrated 680,000 million tonnes/year methyl tertbutyl ether (MBTE)
and methanol complex. The owners will be NNPC (30%), Ferrostaal, Germany (40%) and a
private Nigerian group (30%). 180,000 tonnes/yr will be used to make MBTE and the rest will be
exported.

List of significant petrochemicals and their derivatives

The following is a schematic list of the major commercial petrochemicals and their derivatives:

Chemicals produced from ethylene

Chemicals produced from propylene

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Chemicals produced from benzene

Chemicals produced from toluene

Chemicals produced from xylenes

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 FERTILIZER PLANTS

The fertilizer mixing industry is divided into three categories according to the production
technique employed; ammonia-granulation, bulk blend and liquid mix plants.
Mixed fertilizers contain two or three of the nutrients nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and
potassium (K). These mixtures are expressed as N-P-K grades. N represents the percentage of
available nitrogen, P represents the percentage of available phosphorus pentoxide (P2O5) and K
represents the percentage of soluble potassium oxide (k2O). Over 75 percent of the mixed
fertilizers consumed in this country contain all three of these primary plant nutrients.
Fertilizer plants are used to mix, package, store and distribute specialty chemicals for various
agricultural purposes. Facilities contain many large bins used to store phosphorus, potash and
nitrogen in various forms, as well as other micro nutrients such as iron, chrome or zinc. From
these ingredients, hundreds of different fertilizer formulas can be created.
During the early 1980s, food production was on the rise in the United States. A farmer’s routine
for preparing soil went something like this:
A farmer needed fertilizer for his crops. A soil sample was taken and sent to a lab. A report was
then sent to the farmer specifying which nutrients needed to be added to his soil for maximum
crop production. This report was taken to the nearest fertilizer blend plant. A worker put together
the combination of nutrients into a blender that resembled a concrete mixer and rotated it. The
customized mix was then loaded onto trucks or trailers, taken to the farm and spread.
Toward the end of the 1980s, many government farm programs meant to decrease surpluses were
implemented, causing a decline in America’s food production. Therefore, the need for new blend
plants diminished. Older facilities still existed, but very few new plants were built.
However by 2004, the United States began experiencing a small rise in food production, creating
a need for additional fertilizer blend plants.
Monolithic Domes are the ideal structures for blend plants:
 Domes offer the strongest, toughest facility for storage of chemicals.
 Domes can handle the abuse of front loaders and other heavy machinery.
 Domes can handle the chemistry of the stored products. (There is some danger in storing
ammonium nitrate.)

Fertilizers
Fertilizer (or fertiliser) is any organic or inorganic material of natural or synthetic origin (other
than liming materials) that is added to a soil to supply one or more plant nutrients essential to the

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growth of plants. A recent assessment found that about 40 to 60% of crop yields are attributable
to commercial fertilizer use. They are essential for high-yield harvest: European fertilizer market
is expected to grow to €15.3 billion by 2018.
Mined inorganic fertilizers have been used for many centuries, whereas chemically synthesized
inorganic fertilizers were only widely developed during the industrial revolution. Increased
understanding and use of fertilizers were important parts of the pre-industrial British Agricultural
Revolution and the industrial Green Revolution of the 20th century.
Inorganic fertilizer use has also significantly supported global population growth — it has been
estimated that almost half the people on the Earth are currently fed as a result of synthetic
nitrogen fertilizer use
Fertilizers typically provide, in varying proportions:
 Macronutrients: nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), calcium (Ca), magnesium (
Mg), and sulfur (S);
 Micronutrients: boron (B), chlorine (Cl), copper (Cu), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), molyb
denum (Mo), and zinc (Zn).
The macronutrients are consumed in larger quantities and are present in plant tissue in quantities
from 0.15% to 6.0% on a dry matter (0% moisture) basis (DM). Micronutrients are consumed in
smaller quantities and are present in plant tissue on the order of parts per million (ppm), ranging
from 0.15 to 400 ppm DM, or less than 0.04% DM.
Only three other macronutrients are required by all plants: carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. These
nutrients are supplied by water and carbon dioxide.
The nitrogen-rich fertilizer ammonium nitrate is also used as an oxidizing agent in improvised
explosive devices, sometimes called fertilizer bombs, leading to sale regulations.

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Source of Materials and Process of Operation
The bulk blending process in which feed materials are mixed to produce a balanced fertilizer is
illustrated in the figure below.

The feed materials are dry and granular, and contain one or all of the primary plant nutrients.
Normal and triple superphosphate, ammonium sulfate, urea and potash typify single nutrient feed

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materials. Mono or diammonium phosphate and potassium nitrate are typical multinutrient feed
materials. In addition to these primary nutrients, micro-nutrients and organic herbicides are also
frequently incorporated into fertilizers at the mixing and blending plant.

The feed materials are commonly received at the plant in hopper railcars which discharge into a
receiving bin. The materials are transferred from the bin via belt conveyor to a bucket elevator
fro transfer by chute to specified storage areas or bins within the mixing building. As each feed
material is needed, it is taken from bulk storage by a front-end loader or sweep auger and
transferred to a bucket elevator. Material is then discharged into a weigh hopper for weighing,
after which it is fed into a rotary-drum mixer. When the materials have been added for the
desired mix formulation the mixer drum is rotated until a uniform mixture is produced. The
contents are then discharged and transferred by bucket elevator to storage hoppers from which
the product can be either bulk loaded or bagged for shipping. Over half of the blending plants use
a hopper-type loading station as shown in figure above. Bulk loading into open trucks can
reportedly cause up to 75 percent of the emissions from bulk blending plants.
The particulate emissions from bulk blending plants are fugitive in nature, and result from three
sources:
1. Rail car unloading and transfer to storage,
2. Mixing building fugitive losses (caused by materials handling, mixing and bagging), and
3. Loading operations (bulk loadout into open trucks).
A dust source that may also be found at fertilizer mixing and blending facilities is plant haul
roads.

Typical Examples of Fertilizer Plant Equipments

Crystalline Fertilizer

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Granular Fertilizer

The Fertilizer Plant produces 260,000 t/a of ammonium sulphate fertilizer - crystalline (21-0-0)
and granular (20-0-0) – from scrubber solution of weak ammonium sulphate and excess 93%
sulphuric acid generated by the metallurgical operations in controlling sulphur gas emissions.
Anhydrous ammonia for fertilizer production is shipped to the plant from Alberta in rail tank
cars.
Granular ammonium sulphate is produced by direct neutralization of 93% sulphuric acid with
anhydrous ammonia in a pipe reactor. The molten salt from the reactor discharges into a bed of
recycled fines in a granulator to form spherical pellets. After drying, cooling and screening this
product is shipped in bulk to various markets.
The crystalline product is produced by evaporating a weak scrubber solution in two crystallizers
operating in series. Large crystals are separated from the mother liquor in vertical screen
centrifuges and dried in three gas fired driers. The dried product is screened and shipped to
various markets by rail and truck.

Energy Requirements and The Engineering Problems involved

in the management of materials of Fertilizer Plants in Nigeria

Elephant group, a wholly Nigerian group of companies, with vast interest in agro-allied business
as well as the oil and gas sector is set to open its 250,000 metric ton per annum fertilizer
blending plant in Nigeria, a plant to be built with inputs from its Ukrainian partners.
Nigeria consumes up to 2 – 3 million pounds of fertilizer every year. Therefore, the blending
plant is going to be about 250,000 metric pounds per annum.

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