Bahman ZareNezhad - Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, Shiraz University of Technology, Shiraz, Iran

Effect of seeding operation on the dynamic strength of urea prills is investigated in a large scale urea production unit of a petrochemical plant. According to experimental results the mean dynamic strength of 88 wt% well above the recommended value of 85 wt% can be obtained if a seed composition of 450 ppmw with the mean seed size of 20 µm is used for seeding operation. A semi empirical correlation for description of the seeding process is also presented. The predicted prill dynamic strength is always within ± 3.3% of the measured value.

Seeding, Dynamic Strength, Urea, Prill, Petrochemical