2024 Fall/Winter Sulfuric Acid Today Issue
Simplot improves reliability with dual plant upgrades
Over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, agribusiness JR Simplot Company remained steadfast in its commitment to manufacture fertilizer and provide for worldwide food production. From the start of the pandemic and throughout its initial recovery, Simplot planned and implemented upgrades to keep two key sulfuric acid plants in top working order.
The plants—in Pocatello, ID, and Rock Springs, WY—manufacture sulfuric acid as feed stock for their fertilizer operations. Integral to the company’s mining and manufacturing division, both sites mine local ore to produce phosphoric acid and phosphate fertilizer. Pocatello’s sulfuric acid is made into high-quality phosphate fertilizer, feed phosphates, and industrial products from ore mined at Smoky Canyon Mine in southeast Idaho. Rock Springs uses ore mined at the Vernal Mine in northeast Utah to produce high quality phosphate fertilizers including MAP, 40 Rock®, and super phosphoric acid as well as fluorosilicic acid, and anhydrous ammonia.
Despite regular maintenance at the plants, it became clear that key equipment at both facilities was aging and needed to be replaced. So, by the end of 2022 the Pocatello facility completed its installation of a new economizer and cold exchanger. And by May 2024, Rock Springs incorporated a new IPAT and acid cooler, among other upgrades.
