Steam Drum granulation is a type of ammonia granulation method that is widely used in the compound fertilizer industry, it is the new way of producing high quality compound fertilizer compare to the traditional method. The Steam drum granulation method requires the rotary drum fertilizer granulator and the steam boiler. It has a great effect of making uniform and spherical granules with stable properties. In the steam drum granulation process, ammonia plays a crucial role, it directly affects the quality of the finished product compound fertilizer.

How much steam for granulation of NPK fertilizers?

The amount of steam for granulation of NPK fertilizer is not fixed, it is depending on the scale of the production line. Steam is being used to mix the raw materials in the rotary granulator, it provides heat and necessary moisture to make the powder agglomerate. Depending on the required granule size and composition, the amount of steam being used may vary. For example, TONGLI 150,000 tons per year 15-15-15 NPK compound fertilizer production line is equipped with steam boiler 4T per hour, which means every hour in order to produce 15tons of NPK compound fertilizer will need 4 tons of steam. However, if the customer has enough budget we would recommended them to upgrade it to 6T per hour steam boiler because this way the output of the whole production will exceed the nominal design capacity.

What you should know before purchasing the steam boiler for NPK fertilizer production line?

The most important thing before you purchase the steam boiler for your NPK compound fertilizer production line is that the capacity of the steam boiler may vary based the formula of the product you want to produce as well as the process design, different process design can result in different amount of steam needed. Here is an example, if the process flow is round granule extrusion method, then there is no steam boiler needed. However, if you want to make 18-18-18 fertilizer instead of 15-15-15 then the amount of steam required may increase.

What is steam drum granulation?

In conclusion, steam drum granulation is a way of making NPK compound fertilizer with the aid of ammonia, usually making urea-based fertilizer due to its ability in making round granule fertilizer. The amount of steam needed may vary depending on the different process flow and different product. Therefore, when choosing the right type of steam boiler make sure you ask advice from the fertilizer expert like TONGLI to ensure the correct model of the steam boiler you need.

This article is authored by full-time technical writer Richard Zhu