When Jord commissioned an ammonia sulphate crystallisation plant some 20 years ago, the plant could never achieve more than 85% of its design evaporation rate. Jord maintained that this was due to higher than expected feed impurities. Whilst this explanation was accepted by our customer, there remained a few lingering doubts over whether Jord had under-cooked the crystallizer vessel design. Fast forward 20 years and we finally had a chance to prove our case. The plant operator required a replacement heater, after 20 years of service in this highly corrosive and erosive environment. Working collaboratively with our customer, we took the opportunity to alter the exchanger design to cater for the higher levels of impurity that were envisaged in the original design. This included an improved steam inlet design and increased surface area.

The replacement heater is now in active service. And hey presto, our customer just recorded its highest ever ammonium sulphate production rate. Even better, the original design evaporation rate was met, providing irrefutable proof that our crystallizer vessel design of 20 years ago was indeed correct.