Enid Rotary Club heard an update on the Koch Fertilizer plant expansion Monday.
Among the expansion components is infrastructure to process water discharged from the city’s wastewater treatment plant, Koch Fertilizer Plant Manager Marc Hoss said.
The infrastructure should come online near the end of the summer, he said. It will involve using some water that would typically be discharged and treated, Hoss said. After the water is cleaned, it is used for producing steam or goes into cooling water to keep the plant’s equipment cool.
Koch Fertilizer officials worked with the city of Enid to come up with a multi-year contract to take the tertiary water, which will be run through the plant’s infrastructure to process it further, he said.
“Right now we’re taking drinking water. We’re taking potable water from the city of Enid, that we’re paying for, and running it out there and cleaning it up,” Hoss said. “We will be paying less to the city because we’re not paying for drinking water. We’re going to free that drinking water up for citizens and other businesses that might want to come into Enid.”
Other components include a new 900,000 ton-per-year urea plant, high-speed truck and rail loading facilities, an additional 90,000 tons of urea storage capacity, an electric power substation to supply new power and improve the reliability of existing power to the facility, and efficiency improvements and capacity increases to the existing ammonia plant.
There also will be added capability to produce high-purity urea to serve the diesel exhaust fluid market. He said that is a new product, not currently being produced, that will be developed and produced at the site.
Some aspects of the expansion will wrap up in late 2016, Hoss said. The full project completion is expected in 2017.
Hoss has been with Koch Companies for 25 years. He joined Koch Fertilizer about six months ago.
There is a vision that no one should get hurt at the plant, he said.
“This vision is achievable, and no one is going to get hurt at that site, or the community or anywhere around,” Hoss said. “No one gets hurt at our site.”
Currently, there are about 275 Koch Fertilizer employees, and there are around 1,300 contractors working to build the expansion, he said.
“We are one of the largest nitrogen fertilizer plants in the United States. There’s been a lot of competition out there, everybody’s interested in building fertilizer plants these days,” Hoss said. “It gives us a little competition, keeps us on our toes to make sure that we know what we’re doing and can operate competitively.”
He said the company believes community involvement is important. It is getting started with a youth entrepreneurs program in Oklahoma. Two of the first places to institute the program will be Pioneer-Pleasant Vale Schools and Enid High School.
“The program is near and dear to our hearts. It helps people learn about entrepreneurship, and how to be good entrepreneurs and business folks in the community,” Hoss said.
Story by: Enid News & Eagle
Written by: Jessica Miller
