Rentech Nitrogen Partners
East Dubuque, Illinois
Intern: Paul Roots
University of Illinois at Chicago
Rentech Nitrogen Partners is a nitrogen fertilizer company. The facility
in East Dubuque, IL is one of the primary producers of nitrogen fertilizer
products in the Mid Corn Belt region of the United States.
The intern worked on several energy and water efficiency projects, water
softening, lime management, and pump motors.
Results:
The intern made the following recommendations:
- Change procedures in the water treatment area of the plant to reduce salt
usage in zeolite softener units. These operational changes increase effluent
hardness by only 1 ppm while reducing salt by 33 percent. This project has
the potential to save 257 tons of salt and reduce operating costs by $28,000
a year.
- Replace the cold lime softener with a zeolite softener unit. This replacement
would eliminate lime purchasing, settling, dewatering, and hauling costs. This
could save $187,000 a year with a payback period of 1.7 years.
- Develop a filter backwash recycle package that includes a surge tank. This
water recycle project save 36.3 million gallons of water a year and reduce
carbon (CO2) emission by 74 metric tons a year due to pumping reduction.
- Implement procedures to remove alkalinity from boiler feed water during reverse
osmosis membrane cleaning. Three procedures were identified including:
- Offsite membrane cleaning
- Reuse of the lime tank as a clearwell
- Repiping of the RO system
- Purchase new motors for existing pumps in the Urea Plant as opposed to using
an existing oversized pump. This project has the potential to save approximately
$15,000 a year with a payback period of slightly less than 18 months. The more
efficient motor size could reduce CO2 emissions by 180 metric tons a year.
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