Fertilizer potassium chloride

Fertilizers that contain only one nutrient are called straight fertilizers. Potassium chloride for potassium is an example of a straight fertilizer. Those containing a mixture of the three primary nutrients are called complete, or mixed, fertilizers. The primary nutrients are absorbed by plant roots as simple inorganic ions nitrogen in the form of nitrates (NOp, phosphorus as phosphates (HgPO or HPO ), and potassium as the ion. Organic... 

Potassium Chloride. The principal ore encountered in the U.S. and Canadian mines is sylvinite [12174-64-0] a mechanical mixture of KCl and NaCl. Three beneficiation methods used for producing fertilizer grades of KCl ate thermal dissolution, heavy media separation, and flotation (qv). The choice of method depends on factors such as grade and type of ore, local energy sources, amount of clay present, and local fuel and water availabiUty and costs. 

Potassium Nitrate. Potassium nitrate, known but Httle used as a fertilizer for many years, may be reclaimed as a by-product of the production of sodium nitrate from natural deposits of caflche in Chile. KNO also has been produced by the double decomposition reaction between sodium nitrate and potassium chloride ... 

Potassium chloride [7447-40-7] or muriate of potash (MOP) as it is known in the fertilizer industry (at about 97% purity), is the world s most commonly used potash (5). Chemical-grade potassium chloride (99.9%) is the basis for manufactured production of most potassium salts (10). 

Devising an economical method of producing agricultural-grade potassium phosphates from potassium chloride and wet-process phosphoric acid has been the subject of intense agricultural—chemical research (37—39). Limited quantities have been produced industrially. The impact on the overall quantities of phosphoms and potassium compounds consumed by the fertilizer industry is small. Because potassium phosphates are an excellent source of two essential fertilizer elements, this research is expected to continue. 

Granulation processes offer a number of important advantages. The most significant are decreased pollution problems and the abiUty to produce granules of almost any reasonable size allowing close size matching with granular ammonium phosphates and potassium chloride in the preparation of NPK fertilizers (26). 

Economic Aspects and Uses. Total world production of potassium products is 29,000,000 tons per year (65). Potassium chloride is removed from brine at Moab, and Wendover, Utah, and at Seades Lake, California. Potassium sulfate is made from Great Salt Lake brine by Great Salt Lake Minerals Corp., which is the largest producer of solar potassium sulfate in the wodd. Combined, these U.S. faciUties stiU produce a relatively small percentage of potash fertilizers in the wodd. Production from the Dead Sea, for example, is 10 times greater than production of potassium from brines in the United States. More than 95% of all the potassium produced is used in fertilizer blends. The remainder is converted to other potassium chemicals for industdal use (see Potassium compounds). 

Chisso-Asahi Fertilizer Company, Ltd. This company utilizes thermoplastic resins, such as polyolefins, poly(vinyhdene chloride), and copolymers, as their coating materials. The coatings are dissolved in fast-drying chlorinated hydrocarbon solvents and are appHed to a variety of substrates including urea, diammonium phosphate [7783-28-0] potassium sulfate [7778-80-3], potassium chloride [7447-40-7], and ammonium nitrate/potassium sulfate-based N—P—K fertilizers. 

A number of products are being marketed under the trade name POLYON. These include coated basic fertilizer materials, ie, urea, potassium nitrate, potassium sulfate, potassium chloride, ammonium sulfate, ammonium phosphate, and iron sulfate, in various particle sizes. Coatings weights on urea vary from 1.5 to 15%, depending on the release duration desired. Table 6 Hsts typical products. 

As with other alkali metals, potassium compounds have many uses. For example, almost all of the compound potassium chloride is used in fertilizers. Currently potassium chloride is mined or derived from seawater. Many years ago, potassium was secured for human use by burning wood and plant matter in pots to produce an ash called potash, which was mostly potassium carbonate and used as a caustic, mainly for making soap when mixed with fats. 

The industrial term potash can be very misleading. It can refer to potassium carbonate (K2CO3), potassium hydroxide (KOH), potassium chloride (KCl), potassium sulfate (K2SO4), potassium nitrate (KNO3), or collectively to all potassium salts and to the oxide K2O. More correctly KOH is called caustic potash and KCl is called muriate of potash. Production is recorded in weight equivalents of K2O since almost all potash is used as fertilizer and this industry quotes weight percentages of K2O in its trade. 

Large deposits of sylvinite (42.7% KCl, 56.6% NaCl) near Carlsbad, New Mexico, account for 85% of the potassium products produced in the U.S. The potassium chloride can be separated by either fractional crystallization or flotation. Potassium chloride is also obtained from the brines of Searles Lake, California. All these sources give potash (97% potassium chloride) with a 60% K2O equivalent for fertilizer use. A chemical-grade product can be obtained to a purity of 99.9% potassium chloride. Almost all potash produced is potassium chloride. Potash is used mainly as fertilizer (88%) with a small amount (12%) used in chemical manufacture. 

The major use of potassium sulfates is in agriculture as a fertilizer (97%). The other 3% is used in industry. Potassium sulfate accounts for about 5% of the potash industry. It is twice as expensive as potassium chloride and is only used as potash fertilizer where it performs better than potassium chloride. 

This chapter is concerned with the three primary nutrients making up most fertilizers nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. The usual sources of nitrogen are ammonia, ammonium nitrate, urea, and ammonium sulfate. Phosphorus is obtained from phosphoric acid or phosphate rock. Potassium chloride is mined or obtained from brine and the sulfate is mined in small amounts. Potassium nitrate is made synthetically. These chemicals have already been described under inorganic chemicals of the top 50. Sources for the three primary nutrients are given in Fig. 21.1. 

Potassium chloride is the most important salt of potassium from the perspective of its abundant occurrence and apphcations. This salt, along with potassium sulfate, is used heavily in fertilizers as the primary source of potassium, an essential element for crops. Over 90% salt manufactured is consumed as fertilizer. Also, potassium chloride is a raw material for producing potassium metal and several important potassium salts including potassium nitrate, potassium hydroxide, and potassium sulfate. Other applications are in electrode cells photography buffer solutions and measurement of salinity in water. 

Potassium sulfate is used in fertilizers as a source of potassium and sulfur, both of which are essential elements for plant growth. Either in simple form or as a double salt with magnesium sulfate, potassium sulfate is one of the most widely consumed potassium salts in agricultural apphcations. It is preferred over potassium chloride for certain types of crops such as, tobacco, citrus, and other chloride—sensitive crops. Some other applications include making gypsum cements to make potassium alum in the analysis of Kjeldahl nitrogen and in medicine. 

In the latter half of the nineteenth centuiy the United States was dependent on the vast Stassfurt deposits of Germany for the potassium compounds needed as fertilizers. In 1911 Congress appropriated funds for a search for domestic minerals, salts, brines, and seaweeds suitable for potash production (67). The complex brines of Searles Lake, California, a rich source of potassium chloride, have been worked up scientifically on the basis of phase-rule studies with outstanding success. Oil drillers exploring the Permian Basin for oil became aware of the possibility of discovering potash deposits through chemical analysis of the cores of saline strata. A rich bed of sylvinite, a natural mixture of sylvite (potassium chloride) and halite (sodium chloride), was found at Carlsbad, New Mexico. At the potash plane near Wendover, Utah, the raw material, a brine, is worked up by solar evaporation (67). 

Uses Of the Stassfurt salts.—The magnesium compounds in the Stassfurt salts are used for the preparation of magnesium and of its salts. The potash salts are an essential constituent of many fertilizers used in agriculture, etc. 22 and potassium chloride is the starting-point for the manufacture of the many different kinds of potassium salts used in commerce—carbonate, hydroxide, nitrate, chlorate, chromate, alum, ferrocyanide, cyanide, iodide, bromide, etc. Chlorine and bromine are extracted by electrolysis and other processes from the mother liquids obtained in the purification of the potash salts. Boric acid and borax are prepared from boracite. Caesium and rubidium are recovered from the crude carnallite and sylvite. 

In the leaching processes, large volumes of liquid have to be handled, and the mother liquors contain large amounts of salts in soln. much potassium chloride is rendered less useful since these liquors are boiled down and utilized in other ways— principally as fertilizers. The mother liquors also yield rubidium alum. The cost of the operation, small as it is, does not enable potassium sulphate to be prepared of a sufficient degree of purity to enable it to displace the potassium chloride and sulphuric acid process which can be made to yield almost the theoretical amount of sulphate. Consequently, most of the schonite—natural or artificial—is sold as a fertilizer. 

Chloride. Potassium chloride, [CAS 7447-40-7]. KC1, colorless or white crystals strong saline taste. Occurs naturally as sylvite. Soluble in water slightly soluble in alcohol. Sp. gr. 1.987 mp 772VC sublimes at 1500ftC noncombustible low toxicity, Used in fertilizers, as a source of potassium salts pharmaceutical preparations photography spectroscopy plant nutrient salt substitute laboratory reagent. See also Fertilizer,... 

Hydroxide. Potassium hydroxide, [CAS 1310-58-3]. caustic potash, potassium hydrate, KOH, white solid, soluble, mp 380 C, formed (1) by reaction of potassium carbonate and calcium hydroxide in H2O, and then separation of the solution and evaporation. (2) by electrolysis of potassium chloride under the proper conditions, and evaporation. Used in the preparation of potassium salts f 1) in solution, and (2) upon fusion. Also used 111 the manufacture of (3) soaps, (4) drugs. (5) dyes, (6) alkaline batteries, (7) adhesives, (8) fertilizers, (9) alkylates, (10) for purifying industrial gases, (11) for scrubbing out traces of hydrofluoric add in processing equipment, (12) as a drain-pipe cleaner, and (13) in asphalt emulsions. 

Nitrate, Potassium nitrate, [CAS 7757-79-1], saltpeter, niter, KNO3. white solid, soluble, mp 333°C, formed by fractional crystallization of sodium nitrate and potassium chloride solutions. Used Cl) in matches, explosives, pyrotechnics, (2) in the pickling of meat. (3) in glass, (4) in medicines, (5) as a rocket-fuel oxidizer, and (6) in the heal treatment of steel. See also Fertilizer. 

The principal mineral sources of potassium are sylvite, KC1, and car-nallite, KCTMgCl2-6H20. Potassium chloride is incorporated directly into fertilizers as a source of essential potassium, but potassium nitrate is used instead for crops such as potatoes and tobacco, which cannot tolerate high chloride ion concentrations. 

Phosphorus containing fertilizers Phosphates are the basic substances in these fertilizers. Phosphorus is also essential for plants. Phosphorus compounds are produced by powdering rock phosphate and adding sulfuric acid to it. The resulting products - phosphoric acid and calcium salts (from the rock) are directly applied to the soil to increase its phosphorus content. Potassium fertilizers examples Potassium chloride, Potassium nitrate etc. A complete fertilizer contains nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium in a fixed ratio. This is called NPK fertilizer. 

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