TESTING SERVICES

Bench & Pilot Plant Testing

It is a well-known fact that the chemical and mineralogical composition of phosphate rock varies widely from deposit to deposit. Accordingly, Phosphate Consulting LLC will effectively design a grass-roots mining/beneficiation plant operation tailored to a specific deposit. For combined phosphate and fertilizer projects, we utilize an integrated approach to effectively engineer a facility that will deliver the product at a competitive price, whether the product is phosphate rock or fertilizer. The Phosphate Consultants LLC team is familiar with the latest advances in mineral processing and fertilizer technology, and we have experience in applying this technology in the most cost-effective manner. This process development experience is applied from the conceptual phase of a project through process testing and final implementation.

Bench-Scale Beneficiation Testing

Phosphate Consulting LLC, in association with ArrMaz Custom Chemicals, has the facilities required to conduct bench-scale and pilot-scale beneficiation testing, phosphoric acid pilot plant testing, and batch granular fertilizer production and testing. ArrMaz also operates an analytical laboratory to support the bench and pilot plant test programs. The test facilities are owned and operated by ArrMaz Custom Chemicals, located in Mulberry, Florida, USA.

The beneficiation facilities include equipment for wet and dry grinding, gravity separation, solid-liquid separation, sizing, attrition scrubbing, reagent conditioning, and froth flotation. The data obtained from batch-scale tests can be used to scale up for pilot plant testing and process flow sheet design.

Beneficiation Pilot Plant

Phosphate Consulting LLC has over 41 years experience in developing flow sheets from bench-scale laboratory data and using this information to design and perform continuous beneficiation pilot plant tests. The facilities that we utilize are equipped with various types and sizes of pilot plant equipment, which enables us to simulate most process flow sheets. For very large or complex process flow sheets, Phosphate Consulting LLC can subcontract some or all components of a beneficiation pilot plant test program to a partner lab under our supervision.

Beneficiation pilot plant testing is used to verify and optimize the process flow sheet developed from bench-scale testing. Pilot plant testing is also used for developing design criteria for subsequent engineering activities, to establish product and waste stream quantities and quality, and to define process efficiencies required for evaluating economic feasibility. In phosphate beneficiation, the pilot plant can also be used to provide bulk samples of wastes and/or tailings for vendor testing and to provide bulk concentrate for subsequent phosphoric acid pilot plant testing. Phosphate Consulting LLC has over 41 years experience at scaling up from pilot plant studies to commercial plant design.

Phosphoric Acid Pilot Plant

World reserves of high-grade, high-quality phosphate rock are steadily decreasing. As a result, lower quality rock is being increasingly evaluated to determine potential for commercial exploitation. It is well known that the chemical and mineralogical composition of phosphate rock varies widely from deposit to deposit, and therefore, the conditions for processing different phosphate rock types also varies. Accordingly, the behavior of this "new" rock must be studied carefully by laboratory and pilot plant testing in order to develop the most efficient and economical flow sheet for the commercial phosphate fertilizer plant.

Phosphate Consulting LLC, in association with ArrMaz Custom Chemicals, operates a phosphoric acid pilot plant in Mulberry, Florida, USA (pictured below). The pilot plant can be configured to simulate either the dihydrate or hemi-hydrate process routes. The reactor is a single tank for dihydrate mode and two tanks for hemihydrate mode. Pilot plant testing is typically carried out in 72 hours of continuous operation.

The pilot plant throughput rate can vary between 0.4 and 2.2 kg/h of dry phosphate rock. Data typically generated from pilot plant operation can be used to design a commercial phosphoric acid plant.

© Copyright Phosphate Consulting LLC. All Rights Reserved.