Operations

Management
Fauji Fertilizer
Company
Submitted to: Salman Ehsan
Submission Date: 3rd Dec’ 2020
BBA-IV
Section – B

Group Members: M. Haroon Azeem

Samir Bin Aamer
Syed Haris Ali
 Fauji Fertilizer Company Limited

FFC is a Pakistani chemical company that produces chemical fertilizers. It was founded by
Fauji Foundation Limited, which manages regulatory interest. FFC produces or markets a variety of
fertilizers including urea, DAP, SOP (Sulphate of Potash), MOP (Muriate of Potash), Boron (Sodium
Tetra Borate Decahydrate) and Zinc (Zinc Sulfate Mono-hydrate). FFC markets its products as "Sona".

FFC is a Pakistani chemical company that produces chemical fertilizers. It was founded by
Fauji Foundation Limited, which manages regulatory interest. FFC has participated as a major
stakeholder in the new DAP / Urea production structure through the participation of major international
/ national institutions. The new company Fauji Fertilizer Bin Qasim Limited (formerly FFC-Jordan
Fertilizer Company Limited) began commercial production on January 1, 2000. The facility was built
with an annual volume of 551,000 tons of urea and 445,500 thousand tons in DAP, renewable to to
670,000 tons of DAP.

The company was listed on the Karachi Stock Exchange in 1991. Based on exemplary benefits
to shareholders and alternatives to the Karachi Stock Exchange, the FFC has been on the list of
Pakistan's top 25 companies in a row for 14 years since 1994. As a result of excellent performance over
the years, the company's ranking on the Karachi Stock Exchange of 25 companies has improved from
fifth place in 1995 to second place in 1996, first place in 1997 and second place award in 1998. 2007,
the company is in 5th place.
Production Plans: Production Plans are prepared based on corporate plans and on plant limitations.
The plans are jointly reviewed by plant and Marketing and are then approved by Board of Directors.
Also, the plans are made on calendar year basis.

Plant Monitoring: Plant monitoring is the main responsibility of Production Department. Production
Department operates plant producing SONA-Urea. The Process parameters are monitored closely from
control room as well as from field and controlled with specified limits. The operating parameters are
predefined in the Process flow diagrams. Moreover, field operators remain in their respective areas and
monitor different parameters indicated in the field. Any abnormality in the field is immediately reported
by them. Boardman monitors plant conditions and controls them within the specified limits. In case any
parameter exceeds the specified limit, an alarm appears. Hence, Boardman takes actions to normalize
the conditions. Furthermore, Emergency Shutdown System (ESD) is also provided to bring the plant
into fail safe conditions in case situation is uncontrollable.

Furthermore, Coordination Engineers, Shift Engineers/ Sub Engineers supervise overall plant operation
during their shift duty.

Further monitoring of the plant is done through following:

• Filling of check lists at the start of the shift.

• Logging the key operating parameters on two hourly bases in the field as well as the control
room.
• Routine, daily, weekly, and monthly audits.
• Technical Monitoring Program carried by Processing Engineering Section as per plan.
• Inspection Monitoring of piping equipment and machines (e.g. vibrations, thickness) carried
out by the Inspection Section as per schedule.
• Laboratory analysis of different streams at plant.
• Actions are taken on the basis of plant Internal Audit Reports, Incident Reports and Inspection
Reports.
• Monitoring of machines is also carried out by keeping the record of machinery running hours
and this record is maintained on SAP portal.

Maintenance of the Plant: Maintenance of plant equipment, machines and instruments is the
responsibility of the Maintenance Department. However, Production Department sends notification on
SAP portal for routine maintenance jobs. Therefore, a weekly job schedule is issued by Planning and
Scheduling Section for each unit. Hence, the respective Production unit is responsible for safe handover
of the job according to the schedule specified.
Training of Personnel: In order to achieve necessary competence level, Training of Engineers and
Operators is of utmost importance and is carried out in the Production Department. Moreover, Training
plans for each post are developed by each unit. Similarly, records of training by the units to management
and staff employees are maintained at their respective units.

Ammonia Process:

The ammonia process incorporates the following steps:

- Natural gas from Mari gas field is compressed in gas. The purpose of gas compression is to
boost natural gas pressure for Ammonia manufacturing.
- At plant site Goth Machhi, natural gas is purified in the Desulphurization section to eliminate
any traces of Sulphur which is a poison to several catalysts in the process.
- Then reaction takes place in the primary reformer between natural gas and steam producing
hydrogen, carbon monoxide and Carbon dioxide.
- Then Carbon dioxide is removed in the CO2 removal section and is sent to the CO2 compressor
at urea plant.
- The synthesis gas is then compressed by means of centrifugal compressor driven by stream
turbine and is sent to ammonia synthesis loop which features an ammonia convertor.
- In the final stage the components are cooled down and refrigeration is achieved by a
refrigeration cycle and then ammonia is produced which can be either sent directly to the urea
plant or to fully refrigerated storage tank of 5,000 tons of capacity.

Urea Process:

Urea is one of the most important fertilizers produced all over the world by number of process.
Moreover, the process used by FFC for Urea manufacturing is based on Snamprogetti’s technology.
Similarly, FFC’s Plant has been revamped in 1992 in order to increase its capacity from 1725 MeT/day
to 2105 MeT/day.

The Urea production process takes place through the following five main steps.

1. CO2 compression.
2. Urea Synthesis and high pressure recovery.
3. Urea purification and low pressure recovery.
4. Urea concentration.
5. Urea prilling.
Urea synthesis and high pressure recovery: Urea is synthesis from liquid Ammonia and gaseous
Carbon dioxide at certain temperature/ pressure conditions. In the urea reactor R-101 the ammonia and
carbon dioxide react to form ammonium carbamate, a portion of which dehydrate to form urea and
water.

The reactions are as follows:

First Reaction: 2NH3 + CO2 ↔ NH2CO2NH4 (Ammonium Carbamate)

Second Reaction: NH2CO2NH4 ↔ NH2CONH2 + H2O

First reaction occurs rapidly and goes to completion while the second reaction occurs slowly and
determines the reactor volume.

Synthesis Conditions: The NH3 to synthesis loop is pumped by heavy duty reciprocating pumps at
high pressure. Before, entering the reactor, ammonia is used as a driving fluid in Carbamate ejector and
thus Carbon dioxide is compressed at 45oC by centrifugal compressor.

Urea Purification and Low Pressure recovery:

Urea purification takes place in two stages at decreasing pressure, first one is the medium pressure
decomposition, where the operating pressure is kept under 18 kg/cm2 and operating temperature under
160 oC. The next stage is used to recover maximum of ammonia. Pressure of 15 kg/cm 2 is selected by
the ammonia condensing process in recovery system. Then comes the Low pressure decomposition the
operating pressure is kept at a range of 3.0 – 4.5 kg/cm2 along with an operating temperature to be kept
between 137 – 147 oC

Urea Concentration Section:

In this stage Urea Solution is concentrated from 71% to 85% in the Vacuum concentrators at high
temperatures which ranges from 135oC in the first stage and 144oC in the second stage.

Urea Prilling:

Then the Urea solution is showered in the form of droplets in Prilling tower with the help of Prilling
bucket. The droplets falling from a height of 80 meters solidify to prill due to counter current natural
draught of air in prill tower.

Recovery of NH3 and CO2: Similarly, the recovery of NH3 and CO2 in urea waste water is done by
feeding it in distillation tower. This decomposes urea present in waste water in NH3 and CO2 and
results in pollution control in addition to increase in Yields.
This is how SONA Urea is produced.

Supply Chain/ Distribution:

FFC’s distribution department is responsible for the smooth flow of supplying fertilizer (Sona
Urea) to its respective destinations. Similarly, there are proper procedures being followed by the
distribution team for the smooth flow of distribution of the fertilizer bags. Also, on average about 150
trucks which vary in sizes in terms of capacity come daily to the Goth Machhi plant to carry out
distribution of fertilizer bags to their appointed places.

For this they have made proper channels by contracting with 18 haulage contractors who provide
logistics to them which help in streamlining the operations efficiently and effectively. Moreover,
incentives are given to these haulage contractors in terms of freight depending on the distance travelled
in kilometers which is given by the head office in Lahore on monthly basis. Similarly, the percentage
share of each contractor depends on the performance of each in terms of timely delivery and for this
performance appraisal is carried out every 6 months through appraisal software by the distribution team.

Furthermore, FFC only take preorders and in return a demand draft is issued by the bank. Similarly, an
invoice slip is issued at the time of loading the trucks which is separate for FFC’s warehouses and
separate for the dealers. Likewise, one slip is for finance department or the gate copy, another is the
customer copy and the main copy is the acknowledgment slip. Hence, this acknowledgment slip has to
be signed by the respective contractor or dealer and returned to the distribution department in order to
receive freight accordingly and then freight is given by the finance marketing department after a
thorough check.
Moreover, different districts are divided into North, Central and South zones and these districts are
further divided into Cities which are further divided into regions. The quantity of Urea provided to these
regions is updated regularly on the SAP portal and vary on a daily basis and provided by the head office
located in Lahore.

So, basically the distribution department is responsible for the smooth flow of fertilizer from the Goth
Machhi Plant to its respective destinations with major focus on timely deliveries to maintain smooth
flow of operations. This is how over the years, FFC has become one of the largest Urea manufacturing
country in Pakistan in the fertilizer market through their efficient and effective supply chain system.

Bagging and Shipping

Basic Plant Operation:

Fauji Fertilizer company strictly emphasizes on

the best quality of Urea being packed before it
leaves the plant. State of the art bagging facility,
loaded with advance technology and trained
staff makes this possible. Numerous quality
checks are performed before packing Urea into
different sizes of bags including 25Kg, 50Kg
and 100Kg (seasonal) bags. The basic bagging
plant operations starts with the tons of product
received from production facility through
conveyer belts, which than passes through
certain operations and strict quality checks simultaneously until the filled bags are loaded intro trucks
and loaders for distribution.

Management and Staff:

Overall responsibility of the bagging plant lies with the Deputy Manager (Bagging and Shipping) who
is responsible for smooth and efficient operation. Further down the hierarchy, Day Engineer, Packing
Material Supervisor and Shift Incharge are responsible to coordinate different operations of B&S plant.
Each and every operational activity has its own trained operator i.e. Dissolving Operator, Scrapper
Operator, Conveyer Belt Operator, Loading Operator and Tally Clerk who also supervise labor working
under a specific activity. Such a defined hierarchy of B&S Plant ensures smooth operation and
minimizes errors resulting in the best quality packaging.
Facilities at B&S Unit:

The main functions in the Bagging and Shipping unit are is the Urea product storage, bagging and
shipping. The major facilities at bagging and shipping unit are divided into six subcategories.

I. Bulk Storage:
This facility is capable to store approximately 60,000 MeT
of Urea received from both plant 1 and plant 2. The main
reason what makes such a huge storage facility crucial is
to store Urea during low dispatches or in case bagging
lines are shutdown.
II. Product Conveying Cycles:
The basic purpose of conveyer belts is to deliver the
product from Urea plant to bagging and shipping plant.
Multipurpose conveyer belts comprise of multiple cycles
such as bringing fresh urea to bulk storage or dispatch,
movement of reclaimed urea, emergency reclaiming, urea
to bagging etc. This allows smooth movement of Urea
product from one plant to another and within different facilities inside a bagging and shipping
plant.
III. Reclamation Scrapper:
Urea product in bulk storage is reclaimed through a track mounted scrapper which is common
for both pile A and pile B. the product is screened and then dispatched for bagging. Such facility
allows to manage the quantity of bags packed and dispatched from facility according to the
requirement or demand. Hence, when there is need for less bags, Urea product is stored and
reclaimed whenever more bags are to be packed.
IV. Screening and Dissolving:
Right size of grains is important to make best quality Urea.
During Urea product reclaiming, urea is passes through screens
to separate out over or under size lumps. After careful screening,
over-size lumps are crushed whereas under-sized lumps are
passed through dissolving tanks or to specified are for non-conforming
product in bulk storage.
 V. Bagging and Loading:
Bagging is further divided into two different facilities i.e. Bagging I and
Bagging II. Bagging I consist of 10 bagging/loading machines that are
capable of packing 600 bags/hr. each. Bagging II consist of 5 machines also
capable of packing 600 bags/hr. Bagging I loader can be used to load railway
wagons and trucks whereas Bagging II loaders can only be used to load
trucks. Such loading points are operated as per local distribution office
demand. Documents of truck/wagon are verified against dispatch plan or
invoices to loading operation and weights are regularly monitored form
bagging this loading to ensure uniformity.
VI. Packing Material:
This facility includes insertion hall where packing material e.g. bags, polyethene liners and
treads are received. Manual insertion is done on specific stands to insert liners inside the bags.
All inserted bags are kept in separate blocks. Requirement of packing material is reviewed
quarterly to create a perfect schedule with suppliers.

Quality Management

Quality Checks in Shipping and Bagging Department:

Bagging and shipping unit is also responsible to maintain urea’s product quality, safety and
security till bagging of urea product and loading on vehicles by following certain parameters throughout
the process, under the supervision of technical team. Non-conforming product is identified at each stage
of process ad diverted towards the bulk storage. Samples of urea product on conveyer belts are
physically inspected to monitor quality throughout the process. In case quality is not up to the mark,
samples are sent to laboratory for verification and further quality improvement. Meanwhile bulk storage
is used to store such urea product as discussed earlier. Moreover, weight of bags is regularly monitored
and recorded under supervision of shift incharge. Weight scales are regularly calibrated and serviced
on quarterly basis with proper record keeping.

Product Quality during production processes:

The main Operational Unit, the Urea unit is responsible to maintain the quality of the Urea as
well by exercising the element of having a control on the process, that are having the quality check and
maintenance parameters throughout the process of collection of raw materials, production of the
products and even at the final stage of the bagging & packaging of The Sona Urea. The non-conforming
product is identified and diverted towards bulk storage. Many things are taken care of at each and every
stage in order to maintain the product quality along with its productivity as well. Out of many things,
some major things taken care of are:
1. Moisture Level: The quality check departments are highly responsible and they try their level best
in order to maintain the level of moisture in the production of Sona Urea, that is kept at 0.45% at
its maximum value, and maintains an average moisture level at 0.35%.
2. Biuret Level & Testing: The second important thing is the Biuret that is kept at the maximum level
of 1.0%. The maintenance level of Biuret is one of the most important features and procedures. This
is the riskiest task as if the level of biuret increases, then the Sona Urea would become highly toxic
and could actually intoxicate the whole land along with the effect on the crops as the crops would
start rotting and the fields would be destroyed. And on the other hand, if its quantity decreases, then
there would be no effect of this biuret on the production of the Sona Urea. So the level of biuret
should remain between the values of 0.87% till 1.0% at the minimum and its maximum range. The
minimum size of each prill is also sorted before passing the Sona Urea to the bagging and the
packaging final process.
3. Sizing and Urea Prilling: There is a minimum size of the prill to be at least a size of 1.70 mm, and
to be 1.90 mm as the maximum size that needs to be sent to their customers. Industrial Grade prilled
Sona Urea is susceptible to breakage from moisture, humidity, heat, temperature cycling, pressure
and pneumatic or mechanical handling.
4. Fines: Fines can result producing possible caking or lumping as well as decreased product flow
characteristics or increased bulk density. So the fines are kept at the maximum level of 3.5 % in
order to maintain the quality of the Sona Urea.
5. High Pressure Recovery: Urea is synthesis from liquid Ammonia and gaseous Carbon dioxide at
certain temperature / pressure conditions.
6. Synthesis conditions:
i. Pressure: Pressure is measured in kg/cm2. Best pressure level for fruitful and successful
collisions is in range of 150 – 155 kg/cm2.
ii. Temperature: Temperature is measured in Degree Celsius (°C). Best temperature range
for most fruitful and successful collisions is in range of 185 – 188 °C.
7. Urea Purification and Low Pressure Recovery: Urea purification is one of the most important
step as this is one of the initial quality management stages. This purification of Urea takes place in
two stages of decreasing pressure.
i. Medium Pressure Decomposition: The conditions include the pressure and temperature
level. Operating Pressure is maintained at 15–18 kg/cm2, while Temperature at 155–160
°C.
ii. Low Pressure Decomposition: The Operating Pressure is 3.0 – 4.5 kg/cm2, while
Temperature is to be kept at 137 – 147 °C.
8. Urea Concentration Section: The concentration level is kept within 71 % – 85 % in Pre –
Container. While at 1st and the 2nd stage of Vacuum Containers, concentration level exceeds by 99
% for Urea Solution.
Safety Management

Detailed responsibilities at Annex — A. As a requirement of OHSAS 18001:2007, the work carried out
by contractors or the vendors will be monitored for safe practices and responsibilities are defined.
HS&E will ensure that maximum safety of company employees, assets and other materials from any
accident or damage resulting from unsafe job by contract workforce is achieved.

The plant management ensure it is safer to carry out the job, provided the precautions mentioned are
observed. It only ensures safe working conditions. Working safely still remains the responsibility of the
job executing team. No permit can be issued to contractor. In contracted out jobs permit is issued in the
name of FFC employee and supervision is also the responsibility of same employee. The contractor
shall follow all safety rules, work procedures and required engineering specification.

Minimum amount of loose material is kept lying about in any place from where it may fall on persons
working or passing beneath. Parts of scaffolding, tools, other articles and materials are all lowered and
not thrown from a height. Area underneath should be properly cordoned off and sign boards with caution
displayed. No job at two heights at same vicinity is allowed.

All hot work permit particularly near/on combustible gas lines will required explosivity test. The
explosivity test will be coordinated between Admin/TSC and carried out by a competent person. The
hot work permit will be issued by DM-TSC only after explosivity test is found okay if applicable.
Quality Management System, ISO 9001:2008.

The Fauji Fertilizers Limited is committed to attain excellence in all the areas of its operations,
including the in-house operations of manufacturing, safety, bagging & packaging and even the product
quality. FFC continues to strive in order to improve using the coordinated efforts, feedback, training
and employee motivation. FFC has a significant sight along with their focused determination in order
to ensure the level of customer satisfaction, productivity and profitability of the company, the
occupational health, safety and care for our environment and also plays a vital role in industrial
agricultural development of Pakistan.

Environmental Management System, ISO 14001:2004

FFC is committed to achieve the environmental protection through compliance with all the
applicable laws and regulations. Along with an active pollution prevention program is followed with
efforts for continual improvement in the environmental aspects related to all plant operations.

Occupational Health & Safety Management System, OH&S 18001:2007

FFC is committed to continual improvement OH&S management and performance. They also
work hard to resolve to prevent he ill health’s, incidents and injuries through compliance with applicable
laws and standards, training, control, feedback and corrective and preventive mechanisms and effective
actions.