Research & Development
Process Research
In industrial process research, the path from initial idea to final technology can be a long and tortuous one.
EcoPhos’s R&D effort is structured such as to minimize the time required to arrive at a final viable process suitable for industrial application. New process ideas are initially compared against the literature for novelty and prior art, before being verified and optimized on batch and continuous benchscale in the laboratory. Simultaneously, the process flow scheme is being iteratively simulated on computer while the costing is being tracked, to save time and avoid dead-ends. The following step is trials on pilot plant scale, in partnership with an industrial operator.
Industrial Pilot Plant
A 500 kg/day pilot plant to trial the TK AC12 process was built by Solvay in Dombasle (France) in 2001. Trials on the first half of the process-known as "Module 1"-were completed in 2002 and sufficient operating and design data were collected to draw up a "Feasibility" process package. The module 1 process is now commercial, with this package serving as the basis for the engineering design of industrial plants. Looked at independently, Module 1 is a low-cost process to make dicalcium phosphate (DCP) directly; or, in an adapted form, it can be used to convert low quality rock to a high phosphate content intermediate (in which case it is known as the Chemical Benificiation process).
Continuing Research in Louvain-la-Neuve:
The development of Module 2 L-L extraction: this module consists of the conversion and purification of the DCP into an upgraded phosphoric acid. The module 2 uses an in-house developed variant of the liquid/liquid extraction technique.
Technology for the generation and recycle of HCl Module 4: The basic chemistry for making HCl from CaCl2 using H2SO4 is well known: work consists of the optimization of this process and making it ready for industrial application. A unique feature of this process is that a solid residue waste stream comes out separated from a relatively clean gypsum, compared to the huge amount of phospho-gypsum waste stream in classical routes.
A process for the direct attack of DCP with H2SO4 Module 3. This work is an outgrowth of the Module 1 development as applied to the upgrading of low quality rock. As declining quality of rock becomes more pressing for the phosphates industry, the combined EcoPhos processes module 1 and 3 is the perfect answer for using low quality phosphate rock in economic and environmental feasible phosphoric acid production.
EcoPhos Project in Bulgaria:
EcoPhos and its subsidiary Decaphos, a Bulgarian producer of DCP, have expanded the latter company’s production capacity of DCP and MCP.
The expansion is utilizing EcoPhos’s module 1 technology for the production of DCP from phosphate rock with HCl; as well as EcoPhos’s module 4 technology for the recovery and recycling of HCl. This industrial project is one of the major industrial project involving EcoPhos’s technologies. This production joint venture is therefore demonstrating the unique environmentally friendly EcoPhos approach in one of the most competitive DCP production operations in the industry.
EcoPhos is confident that-within a few years-its innovative, production processes will become the norm for the phosphates industry.