Recovery of Phosphoric Acid and Calcium Phosphate from Dephosphorization Slag

We previously reported that by adding aqueous ammonia to the nitric acid extract of dephosphorization slag, a solid with enhanced concentrations of calcium and phosphorus, could be recovered. The present study shows that a considerable amount of manganese and iron also remains, however, which creates difficulties in directly reusing the recovered solid. The recovered material was again dissolved in nitric acid and the resultant filtrate was passed through a cation exchange resin that mostly removed various cations from the yield of an aqueous phosphoric acid solution. The recovery of phosphoric acid was confirmed via 31P NMR. Furthermore, when calcium nitrate was added to this aqueous solution, calcium hydroxyapatite, which was converted to calcium phosphate after the calcination at 1073 K. Phosphoric acid, calcium hydroxyapatite, and calcium phosphate are raw materials that are used to produce various industrial products containing phosphorus, and the suggested process greatly improves the technology for recovering phosphorus-containing materials that are mostly used as fertilizer.