Al-Sowaidi and Esin with senior Qafco and NIIK executives at the HSDG unit contract awarding ceremony in Doha yesterday.

Qatar Fertiliser Company (Qafco) has awarded a contract to Russian engineering and technology firm NIIK to design and install a pilot ‘High Speed Drum Granulation’ (HSDG) unit to produce various value-added urea products in the country.

The unit, with a capacity of 2.4 tonnes a day, will allow Qafco to develop various urea-based products by adding sulphur, ammonium sulphate and a diverse range of other micronutrients. The first of its kind pilot unit is a first step to develop higher-value urea based fertiliser utilising the efficient asset base of Qafco as the largest single site urea producer, as well as utilising the abundant sulphur available in Qatar.

Construction activities of the pilot plant are expected to start in mid-2015 and production by the year-end, Qafco said.

“Based on the experience from the pilot unit, actual larger capacity units for producing the specialty urea will be installed. By implementing that, part of the large quantity of sulphur available and now exported from Qatar will be utilised inside Qatar for producing value added product,” Qafco said.

The agreement was signed for Qafco by its CEO, Khalifa A al-Sowaidi and for NIIK by its president and CEO, Igor Esin.

The ceremony was attended by Ivan De Witte, Qafco chief operations officer; Hamed al-Marwani, chief administration officer, and Natalia Kargaeva, head (International Affairs Department) at NIIK (R&D Institute of Urea).

HSDG can be used to diversify the range of fertilisers offered; depending on market requirements the producer can decide what fertiliser is best suited to satisfy market demand and has a higher added value. It can also adjust the HSDG accordingly for production of a particular fertiliser blend.

Al-Sowaidi said, “The signing of this agreement to set up high speed drum granulation unit by Qafco comes in line with our strategy to diversify away from commodity urea. The fact that Qatar Fertiliser Company, since its inception, has taken upon itself the task of drawing up an ambitious future vision to ensure further development of the company in view of the reality that Qafco accords particular importance to its capability to respond to the market needs; meeting expectations of the shareholders and contributing tangibly to the development of the national economy”.

Al-Sowaidi added, “The initiative is a response to the changing dynamics of global agriculture where the focus is on improved land use based on balanced fertilisation to allow increase of yields and lessening the environmental impact”.

“This pilot unit and the prospect of producing higher value urea based fertilisers are unique not only in the Middle East, but even globally. Qafco is committed to utilising its resources to develop better fertiliser with higher crop yield and lower overall impact on the environment.”

Seeing this as an opportunity to enhance knowledge and skill of Qafco employees, al-Marwani said, “In addition to the added value arising from the production of new products produced by the unit, this unit will also provide opportunities for young Qataris and enable nationals engaged in Qafco service to acquire high-level expertise in the design, construction and operation of technically advanced industrial plants.”

The high speed drum granulation unit offers a lot of advantages over the current technology used in various plants manufacturing compound fertilisers.

The plant occupies smaller footprint area at the same capacity due to intensification of the process. This easy to install unit offers low capital and operational cost as well as flexibility, Qafco said.