As everyone knows, phosphorus resource is a strategically important resource with the feature of indispensability, irreplaceability and irreimbursablity. How to improve the quality of the products concerns the existence and development of the Human beings due to this scarce resource. Phosphorus chemical products are widely used in the industry, food, medicine. Undoubtedly, phosphoric acid is the most elementary and important product in the phosphorus chemical industry chain. It makes the PA process the core technology of phosphorus chemical products. The question is what kind of technology, production pattern and product will be the trend of development in the future, and what is becoming the substitute of the tradition phosphoric acid products? I am going to talk about the current situation and the trend of development today.

“Thermal process” and “wet process” are two frequent processes of traditional phosphoric acid products. Comparatively, products by wet process have lower cost but poor quantity. Besides, higher grade of the phosphate rock is required and treatment of the by-products is much harder. Products by thermal process are characterized by high quantity, low pollution and recyclable heat that benefited circular economy. Whereas, electric energy consumption during the thermal process accounts for 60% in the whole production chain. How to meet the requirements of harmonious society, energy conservation and pollutant reduction while advocating low cost, high efficiency, high quality  and high return? That is a question Sino-Linchem Co., Ltd always thinking about.

In recent years, Sino-Linchem Co., Ltd has been focusing on researching and popularizing energy conservation and pollutant reduction in its industry chain. With a reverse thinking, the company took into consideration the feature, process, packing, logistics and market demand of the phosphoric acid and reformed the process of phosphoric acid -based chemical products. Instead of the traditional process of P4 reacting with water after burning to produce PA tec. grade and food grade, we directly produce Solid Phosphoric Acid——a new product that have a 99.9% concentration of P2O5 which can be directly diluted into 75%-115% PA or PPA by adding some water to meet the market demand. The reformed process is based on reducing the energy consumption during the production and improving the quantity of the traditional phosphoric acid.

Solid Phosphoric Acid has the following feature: (1) Weak corrosiveness on the equipments reduces the contamination of metallic cations due to the corroded equipments in the traditional process. (2) stainless steel can be replaced by carbon steel as a material of equipments for the solid phosphoric acid which is a breakthrough in the traditional material selection for PA equipments. (3) Power equipments in the whole process reduce to 20% of the traditional process, which means fewer operators, easier operation and more safety. There is no pollutant during the whole process which meets the requirements of energy conservation and pollutant reduction.

Significant breakthrough has been made in the new process and production pattern after a few years’ R&D and marketing. We are now carrying out industrialized production on a large scale.   Polyphosphoric acid and solid phosphoric acid will gradually replace traditional thermal phosphoric acid 75% and 85% by the features of “investment saving, packing saving, energy conservation, cost reduction and convenience for specification”.

Investment saving is embodied by investment in the equipments. 316L stainless steel is required for traditional equipments as a material whereas carbon steel is suitable for solid phosphoric acid equipments. Current price of the 316L stainless steel is approximately RMB35000-40000/MT which is 7 to 9 times higher then that of the carbon steel (approximately RMB4000-5000/MT). Input-output ratio of the investment is obvious for the investor.

Packing saving is embodied by the liquid physical property state of traditional PA packing in drums. Additional charge of traditional PA is $80-100/MT in which cost of drums accounts for 10%-15%. Solid physical property of the solid phosphoric acid makes it possible to pack in bags. Additional charge of solid phosphoric acid reduces to $40/MT and cost of the packing reduces by 70%.

Energy conservation embodied by comparison between processes of traditional thermal PA and solid PA. Cost of water and electricity accounts for 40% of the producing cost in traditional process. Electricity use in the solid PA process is much fewer and water is seldom used so their cost only accounts for 10% of the producing cost. This process fully complies with the requirements of energy conservation and pollutant reduction.

Cost reduction is embodies by the logistic cost. P2O5 content in tradition phosphoric acid 85% is only 61.6%, the other 38.4% of the PA is water. High logistic cost is due to nearly 40% of water transported. The higher concentration of PPA and solid PA is, the higher P2O5 content will be. For example, P2O5 content in the PPA95%, PPA105% and PPA115% is 68.84%, 76.08% and 83.33% respectively. P2O5 content in solid PA reaches 99.9%.  obviously, same freight for more material is a cost advantage for long distance transportation.

The advantage of convenience for specification is base on the demand and convenience of customers. Tradition phosphoric acid only has two concentrations of 75% and 85%; Solid phosphoric acid can be diluted into any concentration as required. It is a rapidly developing times that advocated speed and efficiency. Customers can choose PPA and Solid PA, dilute into any concentration according to their usage and quantity. This kind of convenient, fast and flexible operation will be popular among the customers.

New concept and new pattern bring a qualitative leap. This is a technological revolution of the phosphoric acid. Innovation is the source of core competitive power in a company. The efficient innovation activities rely on enhance of the innovation power and improvement of the innovation ability. It is a company’s obligatory responsibility for the development of the society to change product mix and production pattern, reform technology and meet demand of the time development. innovation thinking and activities of production pattern ?? the company’s breakthrough and leap under the company’s spirit of “Endless Innovation” and management concepts of “innovation for future”.

In a few years, traditional PA production pattern will be replaced by a new pattern; PPA and solid PA will gradually gains a footing in the PA industry.

A production pattern with low cost, energy conservation; a trend towards fine phosphorus chemical and a reward from high added value; Refer to the question that what kind of technology, production pattern and product will be the trend of development in the future, and what is becoming the substitute of the tradition phosphoric acid products,I think you already have the answer.

October 11, 2010