Introduction
Phosphates, compounds of the element phosphorous, are produced from relatively abundant supplies of phosphate rock.
The major use of phosphate is to supply phosphorous, one of the three essential plant foods, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. Phosphate rock extraction from its ore, and its subsequent conversion into fertilizer materials and industrial chemicals, is a relatively mature art. Single superphosphate, a mixture of monocalcium monohydrate and gypsum formed by the reaction of sulfuric acid with phosphate rock, has been used as a fertilizer since the mid-1800s. Phosphoric acid, derived by the treatment of phosphate rock with sulfuric acid so as to produce gypsum in a separable form, was manufactured in many locations by batch and countercurrent decantation methods in the 1920s.
Phosphoric acid produced by the later process is called the “wet process acid” to distinguish it from “furnace phosphoric acid,” which is produced by hydrating the phosphorous pentoxide...
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*Phosphorus & Potassium is a bi-monthly publication of British Sulphur Publishing, London, England.
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Kent, J.A. (2003). Phosphorus and Phosphates . In: Kent, J.A. (eds) Riegel's Handbook of Industrial Chemistry. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-23816-6_10
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