Afepasa Presents His New Liquid Production Plant

By Daniel García-Seco and Antonio Viso

AFEPASA was founded 128 years ago as a family company specializes in Sulphur and nowadays is the oldest and largest sulphur producer in the world. Their products are present in over 80 countries, of which 80 % are used as fungicides, but also as fertilizers and biostimulants. Over time, the company has been transformed and modernized through a strategic plan based on the research and development for new agricultural solutions, as well as focused on a global expansion plan for exporting our products to more than 80 countries in Europe, Africa, and Asia. Therefore, the company has doubled the number of talented employees and multiplied the investments in a state-of the-art infrastructure in just 10 years. Afepasa has achieved in this way a steady growth, and, thanks to our investment in quality processes and workflows, we are now certificated under ISO 14001, 90001, 45001 and EMAS, in addition to being awarded with the Golden Medal of Sustainability by ECOVADIS in 2021.

Regarding production capacity, the production plant was moved to a new site in Constantí (Tarragona, Spain) in 2002. This new facility was built under the concept of sustainable development. This production facility with 2 hectares of surface and 17,000 m² was designed with the best industrial equipment, the most sophisticated process control, and the most advanced technology available for micronization, sublimation and mixing of agricultural and industrial sulphur, getting to be experts in phytosanitary formulation. Its capacity is more than 50,000 tons per year, complying with the most rigorous quality controls and environmental requirements. Nowadays, AFEPASA continues having one of the most modern sulphur refineries in Europe.

More recently in 2007, AFEPASA added to its product portfolio a new line of products for the protection of agricultural crops including fertilizers and biostimulants, with the aim of offering its customers and distributors a comprehensive response to maintain their agricultural activity in a sustainable and lasting way.

At that time, as a result of the effort of an entire company acting as one and a sustained growth over time (26 M euros in 2022), we are proud to present our new liquid production plant with state-of-the-art German and Japanese technology, a total constructed area of 2,300 m² and an investment of more than 5 M euros in two years. This new plant is equipped with a multiformat packaging capacity from 1 liter to IBC, more than 7 ball mills for griding by wet route and over 11 reactors tanks from 3000 to 20000 liters with a production capacity over 10 M liters/ year of high suspension concentrate with nanoparticles until 50 microns. The company also has a stock capacity of indoor storage of more than 14,000 pallets in its facilities just 4 km from the port of Tarragona. Last but not least, the new liquid production plant does not work with any toxic product to keep 0 ppm contamination with a zipclean system that avoids any type of potential cross contamination among products.

It is important to highlight that in any complex production system as ours, the Quality Control is essential. In AFEPASA we have a QC laboratory where 100% of the samples produced in the factory are analysed by more than 10 parameters in order to ensure the perfect quality of the products.

This new state of the art new plant will be focused essentially, but not only to the production of Elemental Sulphur products. Elemental Sulphur is a key player nowadays in the sustainable and organic agriculture. It is important to note that this product in which 100% active substance comes from the circular economy is the only organic pesticide in the world that does not generate any resistance in powdery mildew. Its application is well known by all farmers all over the world, especially in vineyards, where AFEPASA’s Sulphur is used in 80% Spanish vineyards and more than 50% of Mediterranean vineyards as the most cost effective solution against powdery mildew.

On the other hand, Elemental Sulphur used as fertilizer is the most important secondary macronutrient, as recognized by the European Normative Regulation (EU) 2019/1009 in 2019. The benefit of using Elemental Sulphur with other forms of Sulphur is focused on a slow-release process to increase the soil sulphur content without losing any product via lixiviation, improving the net profit of farmers, and avoiding any environmental contamination. Elemental Sulphur also offers secondary benefits for the soil that are more important in certain conditions, as it reduces the pH of basic soils, equilibrate conductivity, and improves structure and fertility. As a fruit of many years of research in Afepasa with the support of the Center for Industrial Technological Development (CDTI) in Spain, a new novel product was launched to the market under the brand of Sultech^©, the Sulphur biostimulation. Its origin comes from the circular economy, through the microbial fermentation of wastewaters in which bacteria transforms hydrogen sulphide (H₂S) into Elemental Sulphur. This microbiological Sulphur is formulated into Sultech^® Sulphur as an exclusive formulation oriented towards their uses with a very competitive price, improving the quality and yield of crops:

● Soil application of Sultech^® Sulphur product line (i.e Microsul 40S): the mode of action demonstrated in laboratory tests and trials in real field conditions as biostimulant for beneficial soil microorganisms, leading to improved pH, electrical conductivity, and nutrient availability, while enhancing the health of crops through the health of the soil.

● Foliar application of Sultech^® Sulphur product line (i.e Triumphalis): the mode of action is direct biostimulant to plants. This product is different from AFEPASA’s competitors, not only because our range of products are unique, but also because we offer farmers organic and sustainable solutions for different field issues at very affordable prices.

Although we are the most specialized factory and laboratory in Elemental Sulphur in the world, we have a multidisciplinary team specialized in development of any green agrochemical. AFEPASA offers the possibility to develop projects and maquila production based on suspension concentrated (SC) in addition to agglomeration, granulation, and encapsulation thanks to versatility of production from lab scale to industrial production going through the preparation of prototypes in pilot plant with the same technology than the industrial one. Our technical multidisciplinary team of more than 10 technical positions at the service of the costumer has the ultimate state-of-the art scientific equipment including two laser diffraction analysers to assure the quality of the product requirements and both spray dryer/fluid bed at lab scale and pilot scale with a production capacity over 4 kg/h.

In the production of the new agrochemicals and the green solutions is more important than ever the total control and the most efficient production chain, with a holistic point of view. Not only is essential to have the optimum formulation, also the best production system and most strict Quality controls is crucial to have the most sustainable final product. 

Please contact to AFEPASA to make any project that you have in hand and that due to availability of time or resources has not yet been carried out.

Email: afepasa@afepasa.com

Tel.: +34 977 524 650

This article was initially published in the magazine 2022 Biologicals Special.