Chemical Producer Shifts Course with Automated Diverter Valves

Melamine Chemicals, Inc., Donaldsonville, La., is the fifth-largest producer of melamine crystals worldwide and one of only two US producers. The producer estimates that it supplies about 50 percent of the domestic melamine market. Melamine is a white crystalline specialty chemical that looks like a combination of table sugar and flour. Melamine is used in producing paints, wood adhesives, laminates, molded products, polyurethane foam, and other products. The chemical is a plastic resin that helps make products more malleable, fire retardant, or scratch resistant. At the chemical producer's plant, melamine is produced by reacting liquid urea, a fertilizer high in nitrogen, with ammonia. The resulting slurry is purified by removing byproducts and ammonia. The slurry then goes to a crystallizer, which forms melamine crystals. The crystals are dewatered by a centrifuge and then sent to a hot air dryer. The resulting powder is pneumatically conveyed to four 1.5-million-pound-capacity storage silos.