Koch Fertilizer to invest US$90 million in Beatrice nitrogen plant

The investment builds on recent enhancements, which improved the plant’s ammonia loadout capabilities and its environmental performance, resulting in being awarded the EPA’s 2019 ENERGY STAR^® award for energy performance.

The Beatrice team is working on the latest improvements with startup expected in fall 2021. While substantially increasing UAN production, the Beatrice facility will continue to supply ammonia for local demand.

“We are committed to serving our customers, and we continue to see greater UAN demand locally,” said Scott McGinn, Executive Vice President of Koch Fertilizer. “This investment will improve the efficiency and reliability of our operations and add greater production flexibility at Beatrice to meet the demand of both our ammonia and UAN customers.”

In the past few years, Koch Fertilizer has invested more than US$7 million to substantially increase ammonia loading capacity at the site and reduce customer wait time. The company also added new loading racks, which more than doubled the plant’s peak loading capacity.

“Our goal is to be the supplier of choice for our customers’ UAN and ammonia needs long-term,” said Phil Tasset, Beatrice Plant Manager. “We realised our loading system had become a constraint for our customers. Prior to this investment, customers would wait several hours to load on our busiest days. Now, they rarely have to wait.”

In addition to improving the loading capabilities, Koch Fertilizer has developed a transportation management app, called LoadView™. LoadView was introduced to the Beatrice plant in 2019 and allows truck drivers to pre-check into Koch Fertilizer facilities and track their training and inspection requirements, so that they can load faster. With LoadView, Koch Fertilizer has reduced loading time by approximately six minutes per truck during the peak fertilizer season.

LoadView has proven beneficial during the COVID-19 pandemic, as it allows drivers to check in without exiting their vehicle and the quicker load time enhances social distancing.

Additionally, customers can use the Track My Shipment tool, enabled by LoadView, to track the status and location of their shipments with real-time GPS readings and estimated time of arrival.

Read the article online at: https://www.worldfertilizer.com/nitrogen/12112020/koch-fertilizer-to-invest-us90-million-in-beatrice-nitrogen-plant/