The flagship product at Indorama, Haldia, Di ammonium phosphate (DAP), was facing margin pressures. Also, the farmers demanded a fertilizer with significant sulphur content considering the soil. After scanning potential products, team Indorama, Haldia narrowed down on two products viz. NP 16:20:00:13 and NP 14:28. NP 16:20:00:13 could meet farmer’s requirement for higher sulphur. Also, help in optimizing the Haldia site’s captive resource sulphuric acid plants and thus help in generating higher contribution. The innovation becomes special as it was done without
engaging any outside agencies or professional consultants.
Successful innovative solutions were developed through brainstorming and Benchmarking. New product variants of NP 16:20:00:13 and NP 14:28 were successfully developed after lab and plant trials. The plant was originally designed in 1985 with pressure reactor system for the product DAP. Process safety, risk assessment and HAZOP study and FMEA have been carried out before taking the plant trial run. Standard operating procedure (SOP) was developed during lab trial. After lab trial, commercial production was started in August 2021, initially with an average plant throughput of 550 MTPD. The throughput was gradually stabilized to 700 MTPD for NP 16:20:0:13 and 850 TPD NP 14:28 by the end of 2021. This paper highlights the innovative actions implemented in pressure reactor, granulator, drier and in the scrubbing system.