Ammonium glyphosate compositions and process for their preparation

A continuous process for preparing an ammonium glyphosate composition in a reactor, the process comprising

• continuously feeding (i) particulate glyphosate acid, (ii) ammonia, (iii) adjuvant and (vi) water to the reactor to form a reaction mass in which ammonium glyphosate is formed and heat is generated by reaction of the glyphosate acid and the ammonia wherein the amount of water fed to the reactor is about 10% to about 25% by weight of the amount of particulate glyphosate acid, ammonia, adjuvant and water fed to the reactor;
• reducing the water content of the reaction mass to about 2% to about 15% by weight using the heat of reaction of the glyphosate acid and the ammonia to cause the evaporation of water;
• and
• conveying the reaction mass to a product discharge region of the reactor;
• wherein the adjuvant (i) increases the rate at which the glyphosate acid and ammonia react to form ammonium glyphosate or (ii) reduces the flow resistance of the reaction mass as it is being conveyed to the product discharge region of the reactor.

A continuous process for preparing an ammonium glyphosate composition, the process comprising:

• continuously feeding (i) particulate glyphosate acid, (ii) ammonia, (iii) adjuvant and (vi) water to a continuous reactor to form a reaction mass in which ammonium glyphosate is formed and heat is generated by reaction of the glyphosate acid and the ammonia wherein the amount of water fed to the reactor is about 10% to about 25% by weight of the total amount of particulate glyphosate acid, ammonia, adjuvant and water fed to the reactor,
• reducing the water content of the reaction mass to about 2% to about 15% by weight using the heat of reaction of the glyphosate acid and the ammonia to cause the evaporation of water and form an ammonium glyphosate paste;
• conveying the reaction mass to a product discharge region of the reactor;
• adding one or more adjuvant(s) to the ammonium glyphosate paste to form an extrudable ammonium glyphosate mixture;
• and,
• continuously feeding the extrudable ammonium glyphosate mixture to an extruder having an inlet, a conveyor and an outlet with the outlet consisting essentially of a screen through which the extrudable ammonium glyphosate mixture is extruded to form extrudate strands wherein the extrudable ammonium glyphosate mixture flows from the inlet to the screen and is extruded through apertures in the screen to form extrudate strands that break to form moist coherent granules and as part of the process adding one or more adjuvant to the process such that the weight ratio of total adjuvant to ammonium glyphosate is from about 1:20 to about 1:2 with at least a portion of the adjuvant being added to the reaction mass and the remainder of the adjuvant being added to the ammonium glyphosate paste such that the flow resistance of the reaction mass is reduced and/or the rate at which the glyphosate acid and ammonia react to form ammonium glyphosate and the flow resistance of the extrudable ammonium glyphosate is reduced.