A mixed fertilizer is any

homogeneous product containing

two or more plant nutrients.

 Example : nitrophosphate(NP fertilizer)

 There are total 60 elements which facilitates
the proper growth of plants but three basic
elements Nitrogen,Phosphorous and
Potassium is essential to all.

 So a mixed fertilizer providing these three

elements at a time is called NPK fertilizer.

 Itis also called compound or Complex

fertilizer.
 Thisfertilizer is manufactured in granular as
well as in powder form, but the powder form
has some disadvantages like caking, non-
uniformity during spreading etc .

 So,
it is generally produced in granular form
which is free-flowing and easy to apply.
 Itprovides all the three basic neutrients
required in a single fertilizer i.e ( N,P,K )

 This fertilizer is useful in the production of

rice crop and gardening purposes.
NPK fertilizers can be produced in different
ways:-

– Mechanical blending of single or multi-

nutrient components
 – Ammonium phosphate/ammonium sulfate-
based NPK fertilizers
 – Nitrophosphate-based NPK fertilizers
(mixed acid route)
Stages involved :

 1. Processing of raw materials

 2. Granulation

 3.Drying & cooling

 4.Screening
 Phosphoric acid or a mixture of phosphoric and
sulphuric acids is neutralized in the pipe reactors
with gaseous or liquid ammonia. Resultantly di-
ammonium phosphate and some mono-
ammonium phosphate is formed.
NH3 +H3PO4 (NH4)2HPO4 + NH4H2PO4

Decompositon of some di-ammonium phosphate

also takes place.
(NH4)2HPO4 NH4H2PO4 + NH3
 Some of the ammonia also reacts with
sulfuric acid, to form ammonium sulfate :
NH3+H2SO4 (NH4)2SO4
For the potassium content, potassium
chloride is added in the granulator through
the solid feeder.
 Nutrientsare introduced in the granulator
from solid feeder. Slurry is poured from the
top of the tank. Hot gasses are blown
counter currently. As a result granules are
formed, having some moisture, containing
high temperature.
 From the granulator, granules are sent to
dryer, which absorbs the moisture from the
granules to prevent caking.

 Further it sends to the cooler which reduces

its temperature.
 From cooler , granules are sent for screening
, from which granules are screened into :
 1. Oversized granules
 2. Onsize granules
 3. Undersized granules
Oversized are sent to chain mill , and are
converted to onsize granules and stored.
Undersized are recycled & sent to the recycle
feeder.
 1. Acidulation
 2. Ammoniation
 3. Addition of KCl
 4. Spheroidization
 5. Screening
 6. Coating
 Phosphate rock is introduced through hopper into
the first two acidulation reactors where nitric
acid with some proportion of sulfuric acid is
introduced.
 Nitric acid does the acidulation as:
Ca5F(PO4)3 + 10HNO3 3H3PO4+ 5Ca(NO3)2+ HF
Some of phosphate rock also reacts with sulfuric
acid :
2Ca5F(PO4)3+7H2SO4 +17H2O 3CaH4(PO4)2.
H2O+7CaSO4.2H2O+ 2HF
 Here we introduce phosphoric acid and gaseous
ammonia into the next four reactors.
Following reaction takes place in ammoniation
reactor :
H3PO4+NH3 (NH4)2HPO4
(NH4)2HPO4 NH4H2PO4+NH3

 Here some unreacted calcium nitrate will react

with acidified ammonia and form ammonium
nitrate .

3Ca(NO3)2 + 3H3PO4 +3NH3 2CaHPO4 +

4NH4NO3
 Forpotassium nutrients, potassium chloride
is added in the slurry mixing tank and it
reacts with ammonium nitrate:

NH4NO3 + KCL NH4CL + KNO3

and it sends to the spherodizer by slurry feed

pump.
 Spherodization is carried out in spherodier
which consists of a round disc with a vertical
shaft spinning at high speed at the bottom of
cylindrical chamber.
 When the slurry is charged into the
spherodizer, it moves to the end of spinning
plate by centrifugal forces. By the contact
with the plate, the slurry droplets becomes
hard which are gradually rounded by the
collisions with the drum wall and cools down.
 Thegranules produced in the spherodizer are
send to the multiple screens of different
mesh numbers where the onsize particles
move towards the coater while oversize
particles are crushed in pulverizer and again
send to the spherodizer with the fine
particles.
A coating is a surface treatment applied to
solid fertilizers
 Coatings can be liquid, solid, thermoplastic
 The function of a coating may be to:

 Control dust emission

 Minimize caking (bag set, pile set)
 Enhance flowability
 Minimize moisture pickup
 To stabilize the surface
 Improve compatibility in end uses
 To enhance appearance
 Polysulfone was used for a coating
preparation for soluble NPK granular
fertilizer in controlled-release fertilizer
formulations.
 The coating structure controls the diffusion
of the elements from the interior of the
fertilizer granule
 In addition, coating of fertilizers leads to
improvement of handling properties, and the
crushing strength