Arab Potash Corporation operates a potash facility on the Dead Sea at Safi, Jordan with a production capacity of
2 million tons per year (MTPY). The expansion project will increase the production by 500,000 TPY. The project involves
adding a new state-of-the-art cold crystallization plant and an expansion of the solar ponds. Cold crystallization provides
considerable energy savings over a hot crystallization process, which is used more commonly by potash producers.
Hatch was involved with the project from the prefeasibility phase, through to the completion of detailed design, and is
currently providing site assistance during the construction phase.
During the prefeasibility phase, a wide range of expansion options were developed, looking at various process
technologies and numerous production capacity options. From this range of options it was determined the best case
business scenario that best matched the expected market demand growth was a two-stage expansion from 2 MTPY to
3 MTPY, based on cold crystallization technology. The first phase, which is this project, expands the plant production to
2.5 MTPY. The second phase, which was expected to follow within five years would increase production to 3 MTPY.
For the detailed design phase Hatch, joined with partners Dar Al-Handasah (Dar) of Beirut, Lebanon and Cairo Egypt to
form a joint venture (JV) that provided basic and detailed engineering and procurement services for this expansion project.
APC has negotiated a LSTK (lump-sum turnkey) contract to construct the facility with the JV acting as the Owner’s
Engineer.
During the early design phases of this project, Arab Potash’s ownership changed to include Potash Corp, the worlds largest
potash producer. This provided the opportunity to have access to the latest potash production technologies used at Potash
Corp’s many facilities. Consequently many improvements were incorporated into this project and the plant, upon
completion, will be a benchmark for many of the latest potash process technologies, such as crystallization, compaction,
process control, and others.
