Commissioning Anuvia’s First Green Fertilizer Manufacturing Facility Incorporating Municipal Organics

Anuvia Plant Nutrients (Anuvia) has invented and is commercializing a revolutionary new fertilizer. It combines a high level of nitrogen, with organic material and an array of important micro nutrients. A key ingredient of the product is organics. The organics may be obtained from municipal waste products such as biosolids from wastewater treatment, digestate from the digestion of food wastes, digested animal residuals, algae, or other similar sources. In the fertilizer production process, a relatively small amount of organics, 16 percent by dry weight, are reacted with sulfuric acid and ammonia in a two-step continuous process. The organics become chemically bound to approximately one-third of the nitrogen, forming an ideal fertilizer for most crops. Field tests at leading university and research centers have shown that the product produces a fast release of nitrogen at the beginning of the crop cycle during root growth. During the remainder of the crop cycle, there is a prolonged period of moderate nitrogen release. The result is an ideal nutrient release aligned with actual crop needs.Anuvia engineers and scientists operated a demonstration facility in Lakeland, Florida starting in 2010. Their testing resulted in optimization of the basic ammonium sulfate process. CDM Smith was retained to jointly design their first commercial facility. Design of the 78,000 tons/yr (85,000 tonne/yr) facility was completed in 2014 and CDM Smith initiated construction of the $55 million facility. The facility, which is located in Central Florida, was completed in February, 2016 and is now in the commissioning phase.This paper includes information describing Anuvia’s unique manufacturing process, the product characteristics, and expected product usage. The paper also presents an overview of the commissioning process which includes mechanical, electrical, instrumentation and control readiness tests, and facility performance tests. The major facility performance requirements include facility capacity, chemical consumption, product quality and plant-wide emission control.