Uhde Fertilizer Technology (UFT) was established in 2005 as a subsidiary of ThyssenKrupp Nederland B.V. and is domiciled in Roermond in The Netherlands. UFT has acquired the exclusive license rights for the fluid bed urea granulation technology from Yara Fertilizer Technology (YFT) of The Netherlands and licenses now exclusively the renowned fluid bed urea granulation technology world-wide; in addition to that UFT takes also care of after sales services, trouble shooting, spare parts supply and revamp of existing granulation plants built under license of HFT/ YFT.
In connection with the technology transfer UFT has access within the Yara organization to resources for licensing, engineering and commissioning activities. Further development of the process is guaranteed as a result of the permission granted by YFT for the use of its research and development facilities, including the semi industrial pilot plant in Sluiskil, The Netherlands.

Uhde Fertilizer Technology (UFT) is licensing its fluid bed urea granulation technology, without any restrictions, to anybody who intends to build a urea granulation plant.

There are basically two routes to come to a licensing arrangement. The most common one is licensing through the contractor, who is building the plant. The alternative route is a direct license agreement with the owner of the plant.

Granular urea is a commodity with a wide variety of applications. The majority of the granular urea produced world-wide is utilized as fertilizer (fertilizer grade). A minor portion goes into chemical applications (technical grade) e.g. melamine production or is used as cattle feed ingredient.

Urea is by far the world-wide mostly applied fertilizer and represents a market of more than 100 million metric tons per annum.

Due to the excellent physical characteristics, urea granules present several superior features:

• bulk storage and transport is possible in large volumes without caking, losses or quality degradation
• granular urea is particularly suitable for bulk blending operations; the segregation or mechanical damage during mixing and transport is nearly nil
• the larger size granules feature improved agronomical efficiency, in particular when used for paddy rice fertilization; they are also suitable for aerial spreading