Production at Agrotain International’s new stabilized nitrogen center in St. Louis is tracking ahead of expectations. The company is currently fulfilling existing product requirements and expects to increase warehouse inventories throughout summer.
“For the past six months, we’ve been working diligently on fine-tuning our new production facility,” says Dan Kuttenkuler, production supervisor at Agrotain. “Every week our on-stream factor consistently increases and will continue to improve until we’re at 100 percent.”
The facility is currently producing more than 200 tons of stabilized nitrogen products per day, most of which is being used to fulfill existing orders. Once customer requests have been completed, the company will build warehouse inventory.
The stabilized nitrogen center currently operates two 12-hour shifts and expects to add a third shift in early summer. The added shift combined with an experienced, highly trained production crew ensures timely delivery of quality stabilized nitrogen products.
“After the manufacturing equipment was installed and operational, there was a significant investment in personnel training,” explains Mike Stegmann, president of Agrotain. “The granulation process used at the new facility enables us to provide superior quality control and gain production efficiencies, so it was important that every employee had the proper training on the intricacies of the process.”
As the first phase-modifying urea plant in the U.S., the stabilized nitrogen center uses a falling curtain granulation process for enhanced quality control and production efficiency. The process ensures each fertilizer granule is consistent in size, shape and color.
