Thermal behaviour of ammonium nitrate prills coated with limestone and dolomite powder

Abstract

The thermal behaviour of ammonium nitrate (AN) and its prills coated with limestone and dolomite powder was studied on the basis of commercial fertilizer-grade AN and six Estonian limestone and dolomite samples. Coating of AN prills was carried out on a plate granulator and a saturated solution of AN was used as a binding agent. The mass of AN prills and coating material was calculated based on the mole ratio of AN/(CaO + MgO) = 2:1. Thermal behaviour of AN and its coated prills was studied using combined TG-DTA-FTIR equipment. The experiments were carried out under dynamic heating conditions up to 900 °C at the heating rate of 10 °C min−1 and for calculation of kinetic parameters, additionally, at 2, 5 and 20 °C min−1 in a stream of dry air. A model-free kinetic analysis approach based on the differential isoconversional method of Friedman was used to calculate the kinetic parameters. The results of TG-DTA-FTIR analyses and the variation of the value of activation energy E along the reaction progress α indicate the complex character of the decomposition of neat AN as well as of the interactions occurring at thermal treatment of AN prills coated with limestone and dolomite powder.