Metso Outotec wants to consolidate its position in the Brazilian fertilizer market as a supplier of complete solutions for plants in the sector. To reinforce its operations, the company expanded its capacity by building a new testing laboratory specifically for the segment in Sorocaba (SP). The new facility should start operating in January 2021, serving local fertilizer producers and a market that should close this year with a growth of 2.5% (*).
To simulate real field conditions, the test laboratory will have a new complete pilot plant, meeting all the norms of NR 10 and NR 12, and in which the evaluations can be monitored in loco. Technically, the new facility is prepared to carry out processing tests of mineral and organomineral fertilizers, with agglomeration by compaction, mixing, crushing, grinding and screening.
The pilot plant equipment list includes double deck vibrating screen, twin shaft paddle mixer, auger fed high pressure roller compactor, hammer mill, roller mill and flake breaker. They complement the existing plant, which has HRC high pressure crushers and the VSI Barmac, for open or closed loop operation with screen. The list also includes air classifiers, jaw crushers and hammer mills, in addition to wet ultrafine sieve.
The laboratory with the new configuration also has abrasive machines, hardness gauges, ovens and sieve scales for granulometric analysis. The set allows the performance of bench tests such as the Work Index, for ball or bar mill, DWT, PLT, SMC, crushability and sieving capacity tests, among others.
“With the apparatus installed, we will carry out tests of screening, grinding, compaction, hardness, mixing, abrasiveness, strength, crushability and disintegration”, Jose Roberto Malaman, Sales Engineer at Metso Outotec. According to him, tests are the basis of consulting services and which include material testing to define production routes, choice of suitable equipment for material processing and definition of coefficients for equipment sizing.
(*) MacroSector Consultores projection.
