The world’s leading phosphate producer increases productivity by implementing Clear Edge filtration solutions
Phosphate is a household item found in soaps and toothpaste, and as phosphoric acid, when added to sodas prevents the growth of mold and bacteria. However, more commonly, phosphate is recognized as one of the three main nutrients in fertilizers.
Global phosphate production is over 240m metric tonnes annually.
Farmers around the world rely on these phosphate products for healthier and higher crop yields and more sustainable farming. As demand for foods increases, the life of the filter cloth has become a critical consideration for producing operations.
Our customer needed improvements in their cloth service life and higher flow rates at its refinery in North America.
THE CHALLENGE
As the demand for food increases so does the need for performance fertilizers. Our customer needed more than a 30-day limit on the life of their filter cloths.
The industry standard polymer for this application is Polypropylene. Wears from the chemical process limit the filter cloth life and performance.
Additionally, each filter changeover required 8 hours resulting in lost production of 5,200 metric tons and every changeover creates a need for manual labour, increasing the safety risk for the operators involved. A filter cloth that offers longer life between changeovers would significantly increase production volumes and support the growing needs of farmers globally. As a global producer and market leader, the customer looked to Clear Edge’s filtration products for phosphoric acid applications and our convenient proximity to their operations for the implementation.
THE SOLUTION
As a filtration solutions provider with a global reputation for high-quality products, Clear Edge weaves and fabricates products from decades of experience serving the challenges of this market, application, and equipment.
With the existing cloth no longer meeting quality standards, Clear Edge’s commercial and technical teams demonstrated knowledge of the industry and performance limitations of polypropylene and presented a solution to their process engineer and reliability teams. The company now benefits from Clear Edge’s filter media. The benefits of fewer changeovers and reduced manual handling created additional production value for the maintenance and operations team members.
The company tested the proposed filter cloth against their existing filter cloth. The results of the Clear Edge filter cloth exceeded the company’s expectations for service life. Based on the results the customer replaced all existing filter cloth with the upgraded Clear Edge filter cloth.
THE RESULTS
After a successful pilot, the program was immediately extended to a full filter trial.
After previously changing filter cloths on a 30-day cycle, the customer now operates with a preventive maintenance schedule of 84 days, reducing annual changeovers from 12 to 4.
With reduced downtime and increased yield, the customer estimates $1m in increased productivity, per filter!
Farmers and consumers everywhere benefit from an increased supply of high-performance fertilizers that yield a healthier growth while supporting a more sustainable environment for our future generations.
