CASE STUDY

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The Diammonium Phosphate Philippine Incorporated (DAPPI), a registered fertilizer company

producing diammonium phosphate, aims to maximize profit and minimize expenses without compromising
its product. In the production of diammonium phosphate (DAP), a cooler on the process to produce the final
product is necessary. Direct or indirect rotary cooler may be used as a primary cooler in the latter part of the
process. Which of the two following coolers mentioned must be used by DAPPI to meet their goal of
maximizing their profit and minimizing cost without affecting the quality of their product?

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Diammonium Phosphate Philippine Incorporated (DAPPI) is a registered fertilizer production

company that is located in Cavite Processing Zone in the municipality of Rosario, Cavite. Its main product is
the diammonium phosphate, the worlds’ most widely used phosphorous fertilizer. Diammonium phosphate
has a variety of uses including in the Food, Beverage, Pharmaceutical, Health and Personal care products
industry. DAP is also used as a yeast nutrient in winemaking and mead brewing. Its most utilization is in the
agriculture industry where it is used as fertilizer.

DAPPI uses the low recycle process in manufacturing their product. This process exhibits shorter reaction
period that features low-cost operation. The total reaction of the raw materials, ammonia and phosphoric
acid, are achieved in a single piece of equipment, a pipe reactor. The final product is cooled and sent to a
storage bin.

The company is facing a dilemma on the type of cooler to be considered in cooling their product
before being stored. Rotary coolers are an essential part of a thermal process, cooling material as it exits an
equipment where an increase in temperature is involved, to a manageable temperature to produce a greater
quality of the product. For many processes, the rotary cooler is the optimum solution – either for direct cooling
of the material with air or indirect cooling with water.

Selecting the optimum equipment is necessary in the manufacturing process especially if the
economic aspect and standard of the final product is at stake. Equipment selection will all boil down with the
criteria of heat transfer efficiency, quality of the product and total costing. With this, the company has decided
to make a case study on comparing the two types of cooler and which of them would yield and become the
best choice for the cooling process.

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

In the production of diammonium phosphate (DAP) using the low recycle process, a cooler on the
process to produce the final product is necessary. This is an important step in the diammonium phosphate
production since elevated temperatures on the product will result in caking during storage that can lead to a
poor quality product. By nature, diammonium phosphate is a hygroscopic material, meaning that they attract
and absorb moisture from the surrounding air. Moisture transfer between the product and air will cause the
humidity of the surrounding air to increase, leading to condensation and product caking. Therefore, cooling
the product to an ideal temperature for storage or packaging is extremely important. This will lead to a higher
quality end product.

A rotary cooler is a robust and long-lasting industrial cooling solution. The main advantage they have
to offer is their heavy-duty drum construction. The robustness of a rotary drum accepts a broad range of
feedstock at a high capacity, making it the workhorse of the bulk solids processing industry for both drying
and cooling procedures. Rotary coolers use a counter-current air-flow design, along with ambient or chilled
water, to efficiently cool material. A rotary cooler can be arranged for direct cooling, typically air swept. The
alternative is that it can be arranged for indirect cooling, where the material is isolated and cooled through
the cylinder wall with water.Direct rotary cooling is used in the production of the diammonium phosphate to
cool the product to the desired temperature for packaging and for storing. This can be traded off with indirect
rotary cooling without compromising the quality of the product.

Diammonium Phosphate Philippine Incorporated (DAPPI) will address different design criteria to
compare the two types of rotary cooling method that will determine which type of rotary should be used.

 DIRECT ROTARY COOLING

Direct Rotary Cooling is a type of cooling that works like a rotary dryer without heat. Flights are
designed inside the rotary for the purpose of lifting the material up, and drop it through a stream of
ambient or chilled air, as the cooling medium. Typically, a direct rotary cooler is counter-current, meaning
 the material flows in the opposite direction of the air stream. This is a more efficient design from a
thermodynamics and heat transfer standpoint than countercurrent flow. This provides the most efficient
heat transfer and lowest product temperature.

 INDIRECT ROTARY COOLING

The indirect rotary cooling method uses cold water to indirectly cool the material. The cooling
water flows over the rotary drum, and the water is collected at the bottom. With indirect cooling
technology, chilled water is pumped through a vertical bank of hollow stainless steel plates while the bulk
solid passes between the plates at a rate sufficient to achieve the required cooling. As the water is
collected after applying the water indirectly, it goes into the heat exchanger which then cools the water
and is recycled back to the rotary cooler. The water circulates counter-current to the product flow for
higher thermal efficiency.

Trading off direct rotary cooler into an indirect rotary cooler need to be evaluated to know the type of
the cooler to be used and will be based on the following criteria:

 Heat Transfer Efficiency

 Quality of the Product
 Total Costing

Under the total costing, it is needed to classify and evaluate which is the most effective to use between
the two cooling systems, therefore in the following evaluation, Otto and Antonsson model on trade-off
strategies in engineering design is used to rank its level of importance to be able to compare the cost impact
on each two cooling systems.

 Total Equipment Cost

 Fluid Consumption Cost
 Electricity Consumption Cost
ANALYSIS OF THE CASE

 HEAT TRANSFER EFFICIENCY

The freshly made product is advisable to be cooled before storage in bags or bulk because high
storage temperature increases the caking tendency of the diammonium phosphate. Upon cooling, heat
transfer occurs. Heat transfer is an important component to consider in the operation of rotary dryers,
rotary kilns, or rotary coolers. The heat transfer of the direct rotary cooling system is different in case of
indirect rotary cooling.

In the direct cooling system, the air which is the cooling medium passes through the rotary cooler
counter-currently to the material, thus providing the most efficient heat transfer and lowest product
temperature. It provides less time for cooling since heat transfer occurs primarily through convection.

However, the indirect cooling system is designed that there is no contact between the fluid and
the material, thus the cooling occurs through conduction. Prior to this, it is less efficient than direct cooling
and it also takes a lot of time to cool the product.

 QUALITY OF THE PRODUCT

To meet the satisfaction of the consumers is one of the priorities of the Diammonium
Phosphate Philippines Incorporated (DAPPI). In order to satisfy the consumers, producing
diammonium phosphate must be of top quality.

Using direct rotary coolers, fresh air as the cooling medium to cool the product can affect
the specification of the diammonium phosphate grade. Since the product is a hygroscopic material,
there is a tendency that the solid granules will absorb moisture from the air. The introduction of air
with moist cannot be avoided but using a dehumidifier can reduce the moisture content of air
entering. Hence, the hygroscopic product will absorb little moisture from the air that is still in the
specification of the product.

Using the indirect cooler that uses cooling water has a higher advantage in this criterion
since the cooling process is done indirectly. The introduction of moist air can be prevented since the
 heat transfer is designed to be non-contact between the product, diammonium phosphate and the
cooling medium, water.

 TOTAL COSTING
Evaluation of the total costing which composes of total equipment cost, fluid consumption
and electricity consumption. These criteria is needed in order to classify the two cooling methods of
which is the most cost-effective to use in the production process.

o TOTAL EQUIPMENT COST

Direct rotary cooler for cooling of the product cost is US$ 30,000/unit (US$ 1 = Php
51.01) (Php 1,530,300). The supplier of the equipment is Jiangsu Liangyou International
Mechanical Engineering Co., Ltd. which is based in Jiangsu, China. Additionally, this uses a
blower to deliver the coolant to the heat transfer area, the blower cost estimates around US$
700/unit (Php 35,707) and a dehumidifier in order to reduce the moisture content in the air,
the cost is US$ 2,000 (Php 102,020). The total cost of the equipment is Php 1,668,027.

Indirect rotary cooler cost estimates around US$ 20,000/unit (Php 1,020,200). The
supplier of the equipment is CITICHL Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. This uses cold water as the
cooling medium. Consequently, this uses water chiller to cool the water that will enter the
indirect rotary cooler and a heat exchanger to cool the exiting water from the rotary and
recycled back to the rotary. The water chiller cost is around US$ 2,000/unit (Php 102,020)
while the heat exchanger, primarily an air-cooled type, estimates around US$ 2,000/unit
(Php 102,020). Additional equipment is pump to deliver the incoming water to the cooler.
Pump costs estimates around US$ 850/unit (Php 43,358.50). The total cost of the equipment
used is Php 1,267,598.50.
 o FLUID CONSUMPTION COST

Ambient air is used as the cooling medium in a direct rotary cooler. There is no cost
for the fluid since it is readily available and it is free from the atmosphere.

However, in the indirect cooling method, water is used as the cooling medium. It
consumes 20,437,169.50 kg annually. The rate cost per cubic meter for industrial water is
Php 49/m3 based on Maynilad Water information. The rate cost per cubic meter using
industrial water in the process is Php 1,001,421.31 annually.

o ELECTRICITY CONSUMPTION COST

The overall electricity consumption rate in the Philippines according to MERALCO

is Php 8.17 per kWh. The power consumption of the direct rotary cooler with an additional
blower is 21.28 kW and the electricity consumption annually is about Php 1,522,992.58.

While for the power consumption of the indirect cooler with water chiller, heat
exchanger and additional pump is 20.7 kW, therefore, the total electricity consumption is
Php 1,481,482.44. Summary of the costing of the two methods is summarized in the table
below.

Table 1.1 Summary of the total costing of the two cooling system method

DIRECT ROTARY INDIRECT ROTARY

DECISION CRITERIA
COOLING COOLING
TOTAL EQUIPMENT COST Php 1,668,027 Php 1,267,598.50
FLUID CONSUMPTION COST 0 Php 1,001,421.31
ELECTRICITY CONSUMPTION
Php 1,522,992.58 Php 1,481,482.44
COST

Designers made use of three decision criteria to evaluate the costing of the two cooling system
methods of which is the most cost-effective to use. By using the Otto and Antonsson model on trade-off
strategies in engineering design, each criterion was given a value of 1-3, depending on its importance. The
computation of ranking for the ability to satisfy the criteria is as follows:
 Higher Value − Lower Value
Difference =
Higher Value

Subordinate Rank = Governing Rank − (Difference x 10)

The governing rank was a subjective part of the design wherein setting of rank of “5” is predicted to
the more desired criteria. The assessment of this value is based in the observation and comparison in the
Table 1:1. After the computation of the subordinate rank is done, the overall can be computed.

Cost Ranking

For the first criterion, total cost of the equipment, the indirect rotary cooling has a governing rank of
5 since the cost of the equipment is less expensive compared to the indirect rotary cooling. This will determine
the subordinate rank of direct rotary cooling.

1,668,027 − 1,267,598.50
Difference = = 0.2401
1,668,027

Subordinate Rank = 5 − (0.2401 x 10) = 2.599

The second criterion, fluid consumption, the direct rotary cooling will have a governing rank of 5
because air is used as the cooling medium and can be obtain readily and it has no cost. This will determine
the subordinate rank of the indirect rotary cooling.

1,001,421.31 − 0
Difference = =1
1,001,421.31

Subordinate Rank = 5 − (1 x 10) = −5

And last, for the third criterion, the electricity consumption, indirect cooling will have a governing rank
of 5 since the electricity consumption is cheaper than the direct cooling. This will determine the subordinate
rank of the indirect rotary cooling.
 1,522,992.58 − 1,481,482.44
Difference = = 0.02726
1,522,992.58

Subordinate Rank = 5 − (0.02726 x 10) = 4.7274

The computed values are summarized in the table below.

Table 1.2 Summary of the computed values for Cost Ranking

DECISION HIGHER LOWER SUBORDINATE

DIFFERENCE
CRITERIA VALUE VALUE RANK

TOTAL
EQUIPMENT 1,668,027 1,267,598.50 0.2401 2.599
COST

FLUID
CONSUMPTION 1,001,421.31 0 1 -5
COST

ELECTRICITY
CONSUMPTION 3,127,574.04 1,522,992.58 0.02726 4.7274
COST
Based on the computed values, the level of importance can be determine and each criterion was
given a value of 1-3, 3 is the highest level and the ranking of level of importance is dependent on the
computed value of the difference. The higher the overall rank, the more it is economical to use.

Table 1.3: Level of Importance Ranking (3 being the highest)

GOVERNING RANKING AND SUBORDINATE

IMPORTANCE OF RANKING (Ability to satisfy the criteria)
DECISION CRITERA
CRITERION
DIRECT COOLING INDIRECT COOLING
TOTAL EQUIPMENT COST 1 2.599 5
FLUID CONSUMPTION COST 3 5 -5
ELECTRICITY
2 4.7274 5
CONSUMPTION COST
TOTAL 12.3264 5
RECOMMENDED SOLUTION

The evaluation was done using design criteria such as heat transfer efficiency, quality of the product,
total costing, and using the Otto and Antonsson model on trade-off strategies.

The result shows that the Direct Cooling Method is favorable to use for cooling the diammonium
phosphate instead of using the Indirect Cooling Method. This is due to the heat transfer mode of Direct
Cooling Method which is done through convection that it takes less time for cooling. It also uses air as the
cooling medium which makes it less expensive and is advisable to use.

Based on the Otto and Antonsson model, Direct Cooling Method got a total of 12.3264 while the
Indirect Cooling Method got 5 and the higher the overall rank, the more economical to use. From the data
provided, Direct Cooling Method has a higher overall rank which makes it economical to use as the method
for cooling.