Effect of Dose and Compound Fertilizer on Growth and Results of Red Chili

Effect of Dose and compound Fertilizer on the Growth and Yield of Hot Pepper plant (Capsicum annum, L.). This study aims to determine the effect of Formula Application and dosage of complete compound fertilizer on the growth and yield of chili plants. This study used a factorial Randomized Block Design (RAK) with nine treatment combinations and three replications, each treatment consisting of 3 plants. The combination of these treatments used two Complete Compound Fertilizer Formulas (P). Formula 1 (P1) Complete Compound Fertilizer Pril (PMLP), 2 (P2) : Complete Compound Fertilizer Tablets (PMLT), and 3 (P3) as a control mixture of single fertilizer Urea, SP 36, and KCL ( 1:1:1). The second formula is fertilizer dosage (D) which consists of three levels, namely D1 (30 g fertilizer/plant), D2 (40 g fertilizer/plant), and D3 (50 fertilizer/plant). The variables observed in this study were plant height, number of fruit per plant, fruit weight per plant, dry weight of plant stover. Based on the results of the research that has been carried out, it is concluded that the treatment of Complete Compound Fertilizer Formula (P) has a very significant effect on all observed variables, namely: plant height, number of fruits per plant, the weight of dry root, and weight of fruit per plant. While the Fertilizer Dosage (D): 30, 40, and 50 g did not show a significant difference in the results for all observed variables, and the interaction between the two did not show significant differences in all observed variables.

Survey and Risk Assessment of Contaminants in Soil from a Nitrogenous Fertilizer Plant Located in North China

China is the world’s largest consumer of fertilizer, with fertilizer plants widely distributed throughout the country. With the removal and closing of fertilizer factories in recent years, pollutant surveys and risk assessments (human health risks) for these sites have become increasingly necessary. However, there has been little research on contaminated fertilizer factory sites. This study aimed to characterize the distribution of pollutants, assess the health risk of the site, and calculate the remediation area and volume in a typical fertilizer plant site in North China. A total of 443 samples were collected in 2019; they indicated that the study site had high concentrations of copper (Cu), ammonia-nitrogen (NH3-N), total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH), and fluoride at maximum ratios (the ratio of the highest value of all test data for a particular pollutant to the standard value of the pollutant) of 3.30, 2.55, 19.69, and 1.10, respectively. The health risk assessment results suggested that some hazard quotients exceeded the threshold safe level (>1 established by environmental regulations). The risk control values of soil were 2000 mg/g (Cu), 826 mg/g (TPH), and 1549 mg/g (NH3-N), and the total remediation soil volume was 72860.71 m3. The results provided basic information on soil pollution control and environmental management in a contaminated fertilizer plant site.

Economic Potential of Rare Earth Elements in the Philippine Phosphogypsum

The majority of the phosphogypsum produced by a fertilizer plant in the Philippines is just stockpiled, which is considered a liability with no commercial prospects. It is important that we find use of this industrial waste by-product sooner than it becomes an environmental issue. Our study investigated the economic potential of the phosphogypsum by determining its rare earth elements (REE) composition. Phosphogypsum samples were collected from 2 m-depth trenches at 0.5 m intervals in 24 locations in the tailings ponds. ICPMS analysis of the phosphogypsum samples shows that the ponds have a mean Ʃ REE + Y concentrations of 266.15 mg kg-1. The individual REE concentrations are within the world average concentrations in phosphogypsum, although there is relative depletion of Yb, Tb, and Tm. There are huge variations in REE concentrations between the ponds, likely because these are produced from the processing of more than ten types of exported phosphate rocks since the start of operation of the fertilizer plant in 1980s. The major REE abundance is in the order of Y (26 %) > Ce (25 %) > La (16 %) > Nd (15 %). There is an estimated 66 M USD worth of REE oxides in the phosphogypsum ponds with a potential added value of 3.3 to 6.6 M USD for 1 to 2 Mt phosphogypsum produced annually at 50 % recovery rate. This study provides a comprehensive REE concentration and economic analyses of Philippine phosphogypsum produced from different types of imported phosphate rocks for potential REE extraction.

Steam System Load Shedding Operational Analysis Using Dynamics Simulation of a Fertilizer Plant

Steam system operation of a fertilizer plant can be complex due to high number of equipment, unavailable redundancy of steam suppliers and inter-dependency behaviour between steam users. The plant is subjected to partial or total shutdown whenever one boiler trips as both existing boilers are operating close to design capacity. Installation of an additional boiler will provide additional capacity margin in the event of one boiler trips. iCON(Symmetry) was used as the dynamic process simulation tool to establish proper management for load shedding activity with three boilers in operation. Model was developed for the integrated steam header, fuel gas and boiler feed water network. A detailed representation of the actual plant was achieved by incorporating plant hydraulics based on actual piping configurations, high fidelity equipment modelling, process control configurations, trip sequencing and operator manual interventions. This approach gives high accuracy in replicating the plant’s transient behaviour for load shedding case studies. The case studies prove the three boiler arrangement is able to sustain the plant’s continuous operation. An operational strategy was developed to minimize the impact of equipment trips. It is recommended to expand the model to include the process side to represent the actual plant behaviour with higher accuracy.