Dead Sea Works Sdom, Israel

Dead Sea Works (DSW), a business unit of ICL Fertilizers, is the world's fourth largest producer and supplier of potash products, as well as a broad range of chemical products. The chief product manufactured at DSW is potash (KCl) for use as fertilizer as well as bromine and magnesium chloride which is derived from the highly concentrated brine feed from the mineral rich Dead Sea.

The plan called for an almost 30% increase in capacity for potash production. A completely new system would need to be integrated into the existing plant. This new addition would replace an older production line while providing the additional output. When completed, Dead Sea Works would be operating one of the largest potassium chloride crystallizer trains in the world.

The installed system would need to assure that the minimum nameplate capacity rating of 153 T/hr of KCl crystals was met with a high system availability. In reaching this goal, consistent crystal size and purity of greater than 98% KCl was also required in the production process.

The location of the new crystallizer train in the middle of the existing plant was also challenging . Integration of the new plant to existing operation required field erection of the large vessles due to clearance issues in expansion area.

HPD was selected to supply engineering design and equipment during the early stages of planning the expansion with Dead Sea Works taking responsibility for installation.

The original plan by DSW was to utilize a four-stage train for the expansion. However, through discussion with HPD, a new five-stage train was proposed using PIC™ (draft tube baffle) crystallizer technology. The HPD design provided efficient heat recovery that was available by adding the additional effect. The sizable savings in energy consumption more than justified the additional cost while adding bypass capabilities to the system to keep capacity at a stable rate.

What started out as an engineering and equipment supply opportunity, evolved into a full design-build project as DSW awarded HPD with responsibility for the entire crystalizer plant. This included all aspects of the installation of what would be one of the largest KCl crystallizer trains in the world.

The comprehensive scope of supply involved full engineering of the system utilizing civil and foundation, electrical, mechanical and process engineering disciplines along with a dedicated project manager, who would oversee the entire installation effort.

Despite some of the challenges in executing the project such as limited communication windows, regional climate and extremely tight battery limits, the project at Dead Sea Works was a successful project for HPD.

The high system availability requirement is on target, meeting the designed production rates. Since start-up, crystal size and purity have consistently met the standards mandated by DSW for KCl production.