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Fertilizer giant OCP integrates growth with environmental, social stewardship

ow do you manage major expan- sion while supporting natural and What OCP Produces: H human resources? For the Moroc- can company OCP Group, the question PHOSPHATE ROCK—intended mostly has become a guiding principle in all its for fertilizer production. business activities. In the port city of Jorf PHOSPHORIC ACID—intermediate Lasfar, the site of a large-scale expansion product between phosphate rock and project involving the development of 10 fertilizer. integrated fertilizer units, OCP priori- tizes a strategy that combines increased PURIFIED PHOSPHORIC ACID—used production with careful preservation and in food and industrial applications. social development. With almost a century of expertise, DAP—most common binary fertilizer. OCP Group is the world leader in the MAP—binary fertilizer comprised phosphates market and phosphate deriva- of two elements, phosphorus and tives. According to the U.S. Geological nitrogen. Survey of January 2016, 73 percent of the world’s reserves of phosphate are in TSP—all phosphate fertilizer. Morocco. By 2025, the company plans to NPK—ternary fertilizer comprised of invest about $21 billion USD in its phos- The sulfuric acid unit of OCP’s new Africa Fertilizer Complex in Jorf Lasfar includes this phosphorus, nitrogen, and potassium. phate operations, with a large portion al- MECS® HRS™ tower. lotted to the Jorf Lasfar plants. Each of the 10 units will be capable of producing 1 million tons of fertilizer per year. market and develop the local phosphate tilizers, animal feeds, and basic com- a source of value creation. The group industry. In 1984, OCP Group launched ponents necessary to make other de- works to reduce water and energy use, the Jorf Lasfar Industrial platform, lo- rivatives, all from Moroccan phosphate. as well as recycle and eliminate waste About OCP cated 80 km from Casablanca and 17 km These products include various qualities in an environmentally responsible way. Headquartered in Casablanca, the southeast of El Jadida. At the Jorf Lasfar of phosphate rock, merchant and purified Indeed, every ambitious program initi- state-owned OCP was founded in 1920 Phosphate Hub, a portion of production is phosphoric acid, di-ammonium phos- ated by OCP combines industrial perfor- and began underground phosphate ex- converted locally into various fertilizers phate (DAP), mono-ammonium phos- mance and environmental preservation. traction at its Khourigba mine the next as well as purified phosphoric acid. The phate (MAP), triple super phosphate OCP honors its commitments with year. OCP operates three phosphate min- other portion is exported as merchant (TSP), as well as NPK, a ternary fertil- training and development support pro- ing sites, two in northern Morocco at grade phosphoric acid through local port izer comprised of three elements: phos- grams that teach each woman and each Khouribga and Gantour, and the third in facilities. phorus, nitrogen, and potassium. man, in an inseparable unified way, a the more southerly Boucrâa. Boucrâa is OCP is active across the entire phos- As the largest employer and a major business expertise as well as a model of managed jointly with OCP’s subsidiary phate value chain; it mines, transforms investor in the country, OCP Group is human behavior that can be adapted to company, Phosphates de Boucraâ (Phos- and markets phosphates in all forms. committed to the economic development changes while staying consistent with the boucraâ). Some 120 km southwest of With 160 clients across the 5 continents, of the nation. Recognizing that sustain- Group’s vision. Casablanca, Khouribga is the largest OCP OCP’s commercial phosphate production able development offers new opportuni- The company also makes substantial phosphate production zone. The mining in 2015 reached 26.3 million tons. Today, ties to the phosphate industry, OCP chose investments in social infrastructure to site has four extraction areas and it cur- OCP is the number one producer and ex- to integrate social, environmental, and benefit communities and regions where rently covers seven phosphate levels. porter of phosphate in all its forms in the economic issues within every level of its its manufacturing activities are located. In 1965 OCP grew beyond phosphate world and is one of the largest companies activity. It supports health and education, par- mining and moved into fertilizer pro- in Morocco. For OCP, environmental protection ticularly through building or renovating duction to respond to the international OCP produces solid and liquid fer- and sustainable development represent healthcare centers and schools, as well

Sulfuric Acid Today • Fall/Winter 2016 page 7 Cover Story as youth centers where young people can develop marketable skills.

The Jorf Lasfar plants Jorf Lasfar, located on the Moroccan coast, is the processing hub for materials excavated from the Khouribga mine. The group began overhauling its existing in- dustrial operations at Jorf Lasfar in 2008 with several multiphase projects. The first phase of development includes four new fertilizer plants, each with its own sulfuric acid unit. Upon completion of the last phase, the Jorf Lasfar Fertilizer Hub will contain 10 fertilizer units all to- gether, each capable of producing 1 mil- lion metric tons of fertilizer, 1.4 million New final absorbing tower at the acid metric tons of sulfuric acid, and 450,000 Newly installed cold gas-to-gas exchanger/converter/economizer at OCP’s Africa unit of OCP’s new fertilizer complex in Fertilizer Complex in Jorf Lasfar, Morocco. metric tons of phosphoric acid annually. Jorf Lasfar. The site also offers numerous facilities for the storage of raw material, as well as conditioning and handling of final prod- ucts between the processing plants and duction of sulfuric acid. optimize cost and space, and blowers to savings from a newly installed 62 MW the port. OCP’s new fertilizer plants have sig- optimize energy costs and reduce main- thermoelectric plant and water use opti- The massive undertaking was in- nificant steam requirements, especially tenance and operations costs. Additional mization from the seawater desaliniza- spired by expected increases in phos- for concentrating phosphoric acid (pass- technologies will be leveraged to reduce tion unit. With the commissioning of the phate demand, driven by rising world ing from 29 to 54 percent). The purpose pollution, including cesium catalyst in first phase, the plant is producing 25 mil- ® population, changing diets, and the need of the MECS HRS™ technology is to the fourth bed and an updated converter lion cubic meters of water. to improve agriculture yields in Africa increase the amount of steam recovered design. and sent to other end users (mainly phos- Another great undertaking has been and other developing areas. Some 80 per- Supporting African cent of Africa is currently uncultivated phoric acid plants), allowing the facility the 235 km slurry pipeline, a key piece yet arable land. The company is respond- to reduce the quantity of steam pulled of OCP’s strategy to increase volume and agriculture ing to those statistics with the expanded from the turbo generator and to drasti- cost competitiveness while substantially In February 2016, the first of the new cally improve the energy production at reducing the company’s environmental Jorf Lasfar hub as well as several other Jorf Lasfar plants came online. Called the turbo generators. footprint. The pipeline, which transports development projects aimed at doubling the Africa Fertilizer Complex, the unit is In addition to the HRS™-related phosphate from the Khouribga mines to mining production and tripling phos- dedicated solely to African markets and equipment (towers, heat exchangers, the Jorf Lasfar site, reduces handling by phate processing capacity by 2025. represents OCP’s commitment to supply boilers, and dilutors), MECS is also sup- trucks and conveyer belts and eliminates Given the large scale of these proj- the continent’s farmers with enough fer- plying drying towers, final absorption drying activities and the need for rail ects, in 2010 OCP entered into a joint tilizers to increase their yields and con- venture with U.S.-based Jacobs Engi- towers, acid distributors, mist elimina- transport, which represents a decrease tors, acid piping, and catalyst, along with of about $6-7 USD per ton in transporta- serve their soils. neering Inc., a leading global provider OCP’s new subsidiary, OCP AF- of design and management of large technical and operational assistance dur- tion fees. Each year, the slurry pipeline ing construction and commissioning. is expected to reduce CO emissions by RICA, also inaugurated in February, technical projects. In equal partnership 2 similarly serves these goals. The sub- between OCP and Jacobs, Jacobs Engi- The MECS-designed sulfuric acid at least 930,000 tons and save approxi- sidiary is implementing, both internally neering SA (JESA) was formed. JESA, units will have a capacity of 4,200 mately 3 million cubic meters of water. and with its local partners, storage and with both its management and technical MTPD, include a sulfur polishing filter, Other aspects of environmental con- blending facilities in ports and close to expertise, is leading the construction of which will replace the hot gas filter to servation at Jorf Lasfar have been energy the new fertilizer plants as well as other OCP projects.

Minimizing environmental impact Each fertilizer unit’s sulfuric acid plant has been designed to minimize emissions. To keep its goal of lowest pos- sible emissions, OCP engaged MECS DuPont to supply the necessary technolo- gies, including its Heat Recover System (HRS™) for sulfuric acid production. The MECS® HRS™ system is designed not only to meet operational require- ments, but also environmental (carbon credit) and economic targets, while of- fering a rapid return on investment. The

SO2 releases are at the level of 134 ppm instead of 450 ppm required by interna- Heat recovery equipment installed at new OCP fertilizer complex includes MECS®- tional standards. And nearly all SO (99.9 OCP main sites in Morocco 2 supplied converter-superheater-economizer. percent) is captured and used for the pro-

PAGE 8 Sulfuric Acid Today • Fall/Winter 2016 Cover Story

From the world’s largest phosphate reserves formed some 70 million years ago, OCP Improving heat recovered from the sulfuric acid unit at the Africa Fertilizer Complex is extracts various grades of rock to produce a wide range of products. the MECS® HRS™ system including these boilers, pre-heater, and heater.

consumer areas. OCP AFRICA Continued Jorf Lasfar is located. For ex- plex now complete, the group vironmental and social steward- is strengthening its existing lo- ample, during construction of has increased its employee ros- ship practices, and their contin- expansion The Africa Fertilizer Complex, ter with the creation of 380 per- gistics capacities and will con- ued refinement, as the best way tribute to the development of OCP’s Industrial De- nearly 1.35 million man-days manent jobs. to ensure the greatest possible new distribution networks. Ad- velopment Strategy includes were logged, 86 percent of Moving forward with its outcome to all of its industrial ditionally, the company aims continuously improving its which were fulfilled by Moroc- expansion projects, the group q to serve the whole agricultural environmental performances can workers. And with the com- will continue to rely on its en- activities. sector by opening subsidiaries by implementing various pro- all over the continent serving grams, such as the Environ- the specific diversities of the mental Excellence Program various geographies. launched in 2013. This program OCP’s broad approach to is reconsidering the industrial responsible fertilizer manufac- process and the activity impacts in order to be aligned with in- turing includes collaborating ternational regulations as well with the end user. Recently, the as international best practices to company formed strategic part- control atmospheric emissions. nerships in Ivory Coast with the Helping the group imple- nation’s Coffee-Cocoa Board, ment this strategy is DuPont the National Agency for Ru- OCP Operations Consulting, ral Development, and others to a joint venture, also formed in provide training, field schools, 2013, between OCP and DuPont technical support, fertilizer Flow diagram of MECS HRS™ at OCP’s Africa Fertilizer Complex in Jorf Lasfar, Morocco. Sustainable Solutions. The joint testing, and related programs. In venture offers consulting and other nations, OCP is investing training services to enhance the approximately $5 million USD safety, operational, and envi- over three years in a program ronmental performance of com- to provide 100,000 small farm- panies in Morocco and other ers in six countries in West and African countries. Specifically, East Africa with reliable and the enterprise trains or con- affordable access to appropri- sults on employee and contrac- ate fertilizers and related prod- tor safety and training, process ucts and services to boost their safety management, asset pro- productivity and incomes. The ductivity, energy efficiency, in- program will be implemented tegrated operations, sustainabil- in close collaboration with key ity strategy, and environmental partners and stakeholders in management. each of the six countries to en- The first commissioned sure the program is carried out integrated fertilizer unit had a in a manner that delivers the positive impact on the economy Phosphate pulp travels from the Khourigba mine through OCP’s new 235 km slurry pipeline and is received here at the Jorf Lasfar processing platform. maximum benefit. of the El Jadida region where

Sulfuric Acid Today • Fall/Winter 2016 page 9