Fertilizer industries are vital components of a nation’s economy; however, the significance of fertilizer products cannot be measured merely by the economic value they add. The sustainability of food production is critically dependent on the availability of fertilizers. In that sense, fertilizer production is the most important endeavor of the chemical industry. Fertilizer products utilize the basic inorganic and organic chemicals and industrial gases as described earlier. Fertilizer products belong primarily to one of the two major classes: nitrogenous fertilizers and phosphatic fertilizers. Nitrogenous fertilizers include products such as ammonium nitrate, ammonium sulfate, and urea; phosphatic fertilizers include ammonium phosphates and superphosphates. Figure 2.3 provides an overview of the fertilizer products that are indispensable for satisfying the food demands of the ever-increasing human population.
Figure 2.3 Overview of fertilizer products.
Phosphatic fertilizers are based on phosphoric acid formed by reacting the raw material phosphate rock with sulfuric acid, a basic inorganic chemical, as previously mentioned. Nitrogenous fertilizers are based on ammonia, which itself is formed from the industrial gases nitrogen and hydrogen. Most fertilizer products available in the market are characterized by a three-number label, with the numbers representing the elemental content with respect to nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium (N-P-K).3 The desired level of potassium in the particular product is obtained by blending appropriate quantity of potash (generally potassium chloride, though the term potash is variously used to refer to potassium carbonate, hydroxide, chloride, or oxide [1]) into the product.
3. The numbers for P and K actually refer to the percentages of P2O5 and K2O, respectively.
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