A business expansion is a positive thing. That doesn’t necessarily mean there won’t be some growing pains that come along with it. So, when Monument Chemical Kentucky made the decision to expand by doubling the production of their amination unit, they anticipated some side effects in terms of excess aqua ammonia. But creative thinking and perseverance turned a messy situation into a historic win for the Kentucky team. 

“Aqua ammonia is a chemical product from the amination production that we then use internally as a nutrient for our wastewater treatment plant,” Andy Mueller, Process Technology Engineer, explained. “Previously, the amount of production of aqua ammonia was just enough for the microorganisms in the wastewater plant to consume. But once production significantly increased, there was that much more aqua ammonia that couldn’t be used.”

Without a solution, the overall capacity of the amination unit would have been limited over time.

“The excess aqua ammonia that we don’t use gets stored until it can be used internally or has to potentially be disposed of,” Freddy Rivera-Diaz, Continuous Improvement & Process Technology Leader, added. “Not only does each truck cost $50,000 for transportation and disposition, but it also means that a product that can potentially be used by a customer is going to waste.”

So, the Brandenburg Team committed to make our excess aqua ammonia into usable material for external customers – and started brainstorming. What came from those discussions was a plan to utilize an intense filtering system that would remove all contaminants from the aqua ammonia to not only keep it from the landfills, but also make it a usable product! With this approach, they could drive a much steadier production rate versus a cyclical one affected by the economics of storage, wastewater treatment plant usage rates, and more.

“We always have to make sure that whatever we sell meets our customers’ quality — across all industries. Our team came together to identify different technologies we could use to eliminate any contaminants and fulfill external customers' quality standards,” said Freddy. “Anping Wang, R&D Analytical Chemist at Monument, led the way in finding the best filtering system for the task and performing all the lab experiments to ensure it was meeting all criteria.”  

Making Haste with the Surplus

In January 2022, Deb Schofner, Commercial Development Manager at Monument, was assigned to find new customers for the aqua ammonia product — and in less than three weeks, she had several customers requesting samples and placing orders. The challenge then shifted to ensure that the new process can keep up with the new customer demand.  

The original filter design was flowing at 5 gallons per minute (gpm), which despite being able to recover some of the aqua ammonia, was still barely making a dent in what was already stored – and was not fast enough to keep up with the growing customer orders.

“Based on what we were seeing in the system and the discussions we had with our vendor about ideal residence times, we knew we could speed up the process,” Brian Vincent, Shipping Supervisor, shared. “We tested half a truck’s worth of stored material at 50 gpm to see if that speed was able to produce the same quality outcome.”

When the results of the sample came back all positive, it was “all systems go.” With the filter flow now 10x faster than before, the team was able to cut down the processing time of one truckload from three days (including dilution) to just two hours! In January 2022, the site had over 750,000 pounds of aqua ammonia sitting in trucks, and now, just five months later, they’re down to just 175,000.

Next Stop: More Efficiency & Benefits

But the progress didn’t stop there. The team continued to push the system to new limits, and after extensive discussions and analysis, are now testing a sample at a flow of 75 gpm and now waiting on the results.

“The initial discovery of the system has been awesome for us, but our team only continues to ask questions and challenge the process to produce positive outcomes for us,” Freddy added. “The team was able to turn what would otherwise be a waste stream into a sellable, high-quality product, and now, they just keep improving that process to not only save on cost disposition, but also make us more profitable. It’s a continual effort from the whole team.” 

With the current system only a temporary set up, the team’s plans now consist of working on making it a permanent fixture at the site.

“The next goal is to get a dedicated equipment that can be located right in the unit,” Andy explained. “Right now, the process requires a lot of human-power, so we’re looking to install a permanent system that’s fully automated, which will make operation and output even more efficient and successful. We’ve made such major progress in such a short amount of time, and we plan on keeping that momentum going.”

PICTURE: (From left to right) Freddy Rivera – Process Technology/Continuous Improvement Leader; Andy Mueller – Process Technology Engineer; Casey LaFollette – QC Laboratory Supervisor; Mike Kenny – Shipping Technician; Anping Wang – R&D Senior Analytical Chemist; and Brian Vincent – Shipping Supervisor (Not in the picture: Deb Schofner – Commercial Development Manager)