July 2007 Issue
The summit series
The Proof is in the Coating
Agricultural engineering doesn’t normally land in the spotlight. But Agrium Inc. put it there when it won a 2007 Summit Award for a recoated version of its control-released fertilizer.
BY FRANCINE MAXWELL
The PEGG
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TEAM AGRIUM - Pictured from left, receiving the APEGGA Summit Award for Project Achievement from now Past-President Dave Chalcroft, P.Eng., (centre), are: Peter Jaras, P.Eng., Nicole Sawchuk, E.I.T., Steve Dyer, P.Eng., Tyler Gervais, E.I.T., Dave Eastham, P.Eng., Tom Diment, P.Eng., and George Bocancea, P.Eng. The group accepted the award on behalf of Agrium Inc. as representatives of the many who have worked on the project over the years. |
It’s not a bridge or a skyscraper. A tank of it won’t make your car move faster or your furnace run more efficiently. It’s a product that will, however, help protect the environment through more cost-efficient crop nutrition.
Agrium Inc.’s control-released fertilizer, or CRF for short, isn’t new. The technology has been around and in use for some 20 years. However, until now it was never cost effective to use as a broad, commercialized agricultural product.
Agrium changed all that with a new type of coating on its fertilizer pellets.
And the coating is what garnered Agrium and its ESN 150 project the 2007 APEGGA
Summit Award for Project Achievement.
“I think the team was a bit surprised to get this recognition,” says
David Eastham, P.Eng., a long-term member of the Agrium team involved with the
project. “Agriculture does not usually have as much visibility in the engineering
world as, say, oilsands development or large construction projects.”
The specialties market was not big enough to truly
capture the maximum environmental benefits of the technology. We had to learn
to make the product on a much larger scale and to reduce the price to a point
that made sense for commodity crop growers.”
Р David Eastham, P.Eng.
The award comes at the culmin-ation of more than 15 years of research and trials to find the perfect elements to make this idea work. Until now, only specialized crops and turfs have used CRF because their limited acreage and higher profit margins made it viable. To make the most impact on the environment, Agrium had to be able to put this soil nutrient in the hands of the average grower С and at a reasonable cost.
Over the last 15 years, Agrium and its predecessor companies were all looking at CRF as a potential new product. They knew it was viable. Once they came together as one fertilizer company in 1996, it became a project that took on new life.
“The specialties market was not big enough to truly capture the maximum environmental benefits of the technology,” says Mr. Eastham. “We had to learn to make the product on a much larger scale and to reduce the price to a point that made sense for commodity crop growers.”
In 2006, success was finally realized. It has led Agrium to engage in production of ESN С Environmentally Smart Nitrogen С at commercial levels of 150,000 tonnes per year.
The secret, it seems, is all in the coating.
“The coating has to be perfect. If there are any holes or tears in it, we will not have controlled release,” Mr. Eastham says.
Fertilizer pellets are coated with a semi-permeable polymer, which is extremely thin С only about half the thickness of a human hair. The polymer is where the brains of this product lie.
Nitrogen is released through it at a predictable rate, rather than all at once. Nutrient release rate is controlled by soil temperature and moisture levels. Basically, if the soil is warm and moist enough to grow a crop, nitrogen will be released at a rate that matches the needs of the crop.
If it is too cold or too dry for the crop to grow, no nitrogen will release. Nutrients are released into the soil at exactly the right time and at a slower rate than with current uncoated fertilizer.
Estimates are that up to 50 per cent of uncoated fertilizer may be lost into
the environment under high-loss conditions. With ESN in the same conditions,
the coating protects the nitrogen from leaching and reduces the release of nitrous
oxides, which are created when organisms in the soil consume the fertilizer.
This reduces the amount of nutrients entering water bodies and in turn reduces
the potential for algal blooms and the hypoxia that follows. Hypoxia is an aquatic
condition in which the death and decay of large algal blooms deprive water of
dissolved oxygen. The reduction in nitrous oxide emissions lowers the amount
of greenhouse gases emitted into the environment during crop production.
But what of the fertilizer’s ability to aid in a better growth?
“Repeated studies have shown that growers can apply their usual amount and expect a rise in crop yield of about eight to 10 per cent,” says Mr. Eastham.
He goes on to explain that while ESN is higher priced than the uncoated fertilizers, it doesn’t always translate into costing the grower more. When users take into account the yield advantages and environmental benefits of ESN, they find it gives them more bang for their dollar.
There’s been a payoff for Agrium, too, through its persistence in the pursuit of something the company knew could be great.
And one of the planet’s most basic and fundamental industries, agriculture, will be a leader in environmental protection because of it.
The Project Achievement Award is presented to a project demonstrating engineering, geological or geophysical skills and representing a substantial contribution to technical progress and the betterment of society. The Association will give credit to those firms and persons assuming key roles in bringing the project to completion.