Generally speaking, a compound fertilizer production line can produce various chemical fertilizer, such as NPK fertilizers. The annual output ranges from 20,000 tons to 200,000 tons. Our compound fertilizer production line is with low equipment investment and good economic returns. Compound fertilizer can not only raise soil fertility, but also help plants grow fast. It is essential for compound fertilizer manufacturer or green hands to make best preparation before getting your business started, which is directly related to economic effect. Here comes the questions: what preparatory work should be done before establishing a new compound fertilizer plant? How to start? It will be discussed as followings.

Soil Analysis

testing for soil type

1.Soil type
Soil texture is divided into sandy soil, clay and loam.
The drought resistance ability of sandy soil is weak. It is easy to be leaking so that it contains less nutrients. This kind of soil is lack of clay and organic materials, leading to weak nutrient preserving capability. Readily available fertilizer is prone to lose with rainwater and irrigation water, causing effective but short fertilizer efficiency. It hence should use organic fertilizer and apply additional fertilizer in time.

Clay contains various soil nutrients and has high organic matter content. It mainly concludes secondary minerals in soil, being rich in potential nutrients, especially in K, Ca and Mg. Clay is characterized of fine soil particles, plenty of colloidal substances and strong adsorption capacity. It has good water absorption, water-retaining property and fertilizer retention capacity but slow fertilizer efficiency. Most of soil nutrients can not easily lost by rain and irrigation. It affects growth of root systems and impedes the root absorption of soil nutrients as well. Nitrogen fertilizer and slow release fertilizer are suitable for the soil.

Clay loam is an ideal soil, with advantages of sandy soil and clay. Loam is ideal soil for cultivation of medicinal plants, which is adapted to grow a variety of plants. Plants, which roots and rhizomes used as medicine, are more fit to grow in loam. Accordingly, fertilizer, promoting the growth of roots, can be used in the soil, such as nitrogen fertilizer and phosphatic fertilizer.

2.Soil nutrient analysis

Being analysis of chemical elements in soil provides the basis for needed nutrients in the process of plants growth, which helps fertilizer manufacturers choose proper factory formula, aiming to improve soil and increase fertilizer efficiency.
After analyzing the content of nitrogen, phosphor, potassium and organic materials, it can be known of the condition of abundance or deficiency of nutrients in soil. It also shows the impact of various technical measures on soil and crop nutrients, thereby as a basis of water and fertilizer management.

※Nitrogen
Nitrogen exits in the form of organic species and arsenic in soil. Organic nitrogen transforms into inorganic nitrogen. It mainly includes ammonium nitrogen and nitrate nitrogen. Therefore, ammonium and nitrate determination are major evidence for nitrogen content. The Kjeldahl method is used to determine nitrogen content.

roots nutrient

※Phosphorus
Phosphorus is divided into organic phosphorus and inorganic phosphorus. Inorganic phosphorus exists in mineral soil, while organic phosphor accounts for 20-50% of total phosphorus. Organic phosphor and total phosphor are main determination while we study phosphor in soil.

※Potassium
Total potassium content in soil is generally about 1-2%, structure potassium about 90-98% and rapidly available potassium accounting for 0.1 K %.
According to the existing state of potassium and absorptive character, potassium in soil is divided into the ancient mineral potassium ( insoluble potassium), non-exchangeable potassium (slow-release potassium), exchangeable potassium and water-soluble potassium. There are weight method, volumetric method, colorimetry, tubidmetry, flame photometry and atomic absorption spectrophotometry.

※Soil organic matter
Organic materials in soil mainly refer to matters with carbon, including wrack of animals and plants, residue and waste water and microbial residues. Soil organic matter is an important part of solid phase of soil. It plays a very important role in soil formation, soil fertility, environmental protection and sustainable development of agriculture.
Soil organic matter directly affects the soil resistance, soil moisture, cushioning properties, tilth, aeration and soil temperature. It is not only one of important indexes of the level of soil fertility, but also is the basis for evaluation of classification of irrigated land. Its analysis method is potassium dichromate – sulfuric acid oxidation.

3.Soil pH determination

Soil pH, also known as soil reaction, is acid-base reaction of soil solution. It depends on the concentration of hydrogen ions in the soil solution. It is neutral solution when the pH of the solution is equal to 7. If pH value is less than 7, the reaction is acidic. Once pH is greater than 7, it is alkaline reaction. Its analysis methods include mixed indicator colorimetry, permanent level colorimetric method(suitable for outdoors) and potentiometric titration.
Determination of Nutrients Proportion
After soil analysis in target market, fertilizer production ingredient can be made up. On the basis of soil analysis, fertilizer field experiments, law of demand and nutrient supply capacity, manufacturer can make plans for compound fertilizer production, which directly affects the content of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, secondary element and microelement. In essence, it is used soil analysis and fertilization theory to determine proportion in terms of fertilizer nutrients ratio.

soil pH test

Different crops have different characteristics of nutrient requirements. Crops may need an adequate supply of potassium, such as sweet potatoes, potatoes, sugar beets, sugar cane, hemp, watermelons, bananas and tobacco. Rapeseed, cotton and sugar beets need much boron. Garlic, scallion, onion and cole need much sulfur. However, leguminous crops have root nodules nitrogenase activity, so nitrogen required is relatively small but it has multi-requirement of phosphorus and potassium. Fertilizer formulations can be formulated according to the nutritional characteristics of these crops.
When fertilizer is put on production, quality of products should be guaranteed and meet a criterion. Therefore, it is important to build precious and convenient computing method of inventory. Having a strong understanding of market requirements is conductive to fertilizer production.

Production Condition
Before starting a new compound fertilizer production line, several precondition need to be taken into account. How much prior-perido investment is needed? What kind of fertilizer granulator machine is most suitable? These are some conditions in the process of production.

※Geographic position
Well-developed transportation network is one of factor to be thought firstly. The place, where next to rail station, expressway and highway, can be chosen. On the other hand, the site selection of building a grass roots refinery should be close to raw material production plant, which ensures adequate supply source. Necessary raw materials are mainly ammonium phosphate, potassium chloride, urea, potassium sulfate, ammonium sulfate, superphosphate and so on.

※ Infrastructure condition
Water, electricity and steam supply should meet the requirements. As for annual production of 20 tons of compound fertilizer production line, it takes 6-8 tons of water per hour equipment for production equipments. It mainly used for granulation. It needs 1-2 deep wells as well. It is continuous production of the production line. Because of third class load, it normally takes 2-4 transformers. The project needs to be heated in the process of production, so boilers are necessities.

※ Fertilizer machine
It needs complete set of fertilizer equipment, from fertilizer mixer machine to fertilizer packager for a complete compound fertilizer production line, so it is important for investors to choose the right fertilizer equipment manufacturer/retailer. Generally speaking, in the whole line, there is fertilizer mixer, fertilizer granulator, fertilizer dryer, fertilizer cooler, fertilizer screening machine, fertilizer coating machine and fertilizer packaging machine. All those fertilizer machines are indispensable part for the whole line. Here I would like to show you our 50,000 tons/year compound fertilizer plant with full set of fertilizer machines, for your reference only.

Capital Budget and Economic Benefit Analysis
The investment estimation scope usually consists of new workshops, new equipment, installation charge, basic budget reserve, working capital and interest incurred during construction. The costs should be be taken a fill consideration, ensuring abundance of capital.
On the basis of production line given period, construction period and startup time, to make preliminary estimate returns is the first step in production.

cost and profit

※Cost estimation
Raw material: it can be calculated according to market price.
Salary and welfare fund expense: the expenditure is related to the number of workers, technicians and managers.
Depreciation charges of fixed assets: civil engineering is depreciated in twenty years, while equipment in twelve years.
Amortization charge: it contains intangible asset and deferred assets.
Other expenses: it refers to charges deducted from manufacturing costs, administrative expenses, selling expenses, the cost of depreciation and amortization charge.

※Analysis of profitability
It is made up of sales revenue and profit. Based on factors in market change, sales programs should be planned in advance. Sales revenue involves different factors.
Product price: the price making is kept reasonable and equitable as much as possible.
Production capacity: according to market changes, fertilizer manufacturers should stabilize the production capacity in the former years. In addition, it should be adjusted according to market requirement.
Before starting a new compound fertilizer production line, it needs a lot of preparation except from soil analysis, determination of nutrient proportion, production condition and capital budget. It is important to save water and energy saving as well. It can not be overlooked of environment protection. What’s more, enterprise organization and management is the core work for a new project, which directly affects production plan. Work fixed member management and staff training are supposed to be taken into account. To conclude, the decision maker must pay attention to the interests of the whole and the project executive should get into the details. All the work is to prepare for the new production line. When every step is done well, the production line can be put into normal use in time.