Of Potash

The main stem of the nitrometer widens into a bulb and then narrows to form a graduated tube. The usual graduation is of 8 ml. in o o2 ml. divisions. The graduations continue to the tap Tj at the top of the stem. Above Tj there is a small reservoir H to prevent splashing of the concentrated alkali when gas is expelled from the nitrometer and also to ensure that a small excess of potash is left as a liquid seal above the tap T ,. 

The combustion. The tap T2 is closed, T3 opened and the reservoir J raised (Fig. 87), to make sure that no air has been collected at the top of the nitrometer tube a small quantity of potash is left in H when tap T3 is closed and the reservoir J then lowered again. The carbon dioxide generator is switched off and tap T2 slowly turned on until it is fully opened. 

Certain minerals, however, such as sylvite, carnallite, langbeinite, and polyhalite are found in ancientlake and sea beds and form rather extensive deposits from which potassium and its salts can readily be obtained. Potash is mined in Germany, New Mexico, California, Utah, and elsewhere. Large deposits of potash, found at a depth of some 3000 ft in Saskatchewan, promise to be important in coming years. 

Nitrophosphates are made by acidulating phosphate rock with nitric acid followed by ammoniation, addition of potash as desired, and granulation or prilling of the slurry. The acidulate, prior to ammoniation, contains calcium nitrate and phosphoric acid or monocalcium phosphate according to the foUowiag equations ... 

For most of the decade prior to 1965, the United States was the world s largest single producer of potash. More than 90% of this production came from mines in New Mexico. As the grades of these deposits lowered and production costs rose, expanding production in Saskatchewan, Canada,... 

Potassium Sulfate. Potassium sulfate is a preferred form of potash for crops that have a low tolerance for chloride. Tobacco and potatoes ate two such crops. K2SO4 is produced most often from langbeinite by metathetical reaction in aqueous solution ... 

World Survey of Potash Resources, 2nd ed.. The British Sulphur Corp. Ltd., London, 1966. 

Potassium [7440-09-7] K, is the third, element ia the aLkaU metal series. The name designation for the element is derived from potash, a potassium mineral the symbol from the German name kalium, which comes from the Arabic qili, a plant. The ashes of these plants al qili) were the historical source of potash for preparing fertilisers (qv) or gun powder. Potassium ions, essential to plants and animals, play a key role in carbohydrate metaboHsm in plants. In animals, potassium ions promote glycolysis, Hpolysis, tissue respiration, and the synthesis of proteins (qv) and acetylcholine. Potassium ions are also beheved to function in regulating blood pressure. 

Four minerals are the principal commercial sources of potash (Table 2). In all ores, sodium chloride is the principal soluble contaminant. Extraneous water-iasoluble material, eg, clay and siUca, is a significant contaminant ia some of the evaporates being mined from underground deposits. Some European potassium ores contain relatively large amounts of the mineral kieserite, MgS04-H2 0. It is recovered for captive use to produce potassium sulfate compounds or is marketed ia relatively pure form as a water-soluble magnesium fertilizer. 

There are two basic classes of potash-containing evaporites (2), those deposits that are rich ia magnesium sulfate, such as polyhaUte and kieserite, and those that are poor ia magnesium sulfate. The primary source of potash ia the magnesium-rich deposits is camakite, whereas both camakite and sylvite are found ia the magnesium-poor deposits. 

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). 

Sizing. In most flotation plants, flotation concentrates, after being dried, are sized into three fractions and each serves a specific agricultural market. The fractions are coarse-, standard-, and suspension-grades of muriate of potash. Typical screen analyses are presented in Table 6 other physical characteristics are summarized in Table 7. 

In Canada, ion-exchange (qv) technology has been used to produce potassium sulfate (4). Ion-exchange resins remove sulfate ions from lake water containing sodium sulfate. This is followed by a wash with aqueous solutions prepared from lower grade muriate of potash. High purity potassium sulfate is collected from the crystallizers into which the wash mns. 

North American Chemical Co. produces borax pentahydrate and decahydrate from Seades Lake brines in both Trona and West End, California (see Chemicals frombrines). The 88 km dry lake consists of two brine layers, the analyses of which are given in Table 11. Two distinct procedures are used for the processing of upper and lower lake brines. Borax is produced in Trona from upper lake brines by an evaporative procedure involving the crystallization of potash and several other salts prior to borax crystallization as the pentahydrate (104). A carbonation process is used in West End, California to derive borate values from lower lake brines (105). Raw lower stmcture brine is carbonated to produce sodium bicarbonate, which is calcined and recrystallized as sodium carbonate monohydrate. The borate-rich filtrate is neutralized with lake brine and refrigerated to crystallize borax. 

Occurrence. Muriate of potash [7447 0-7] KCl, and sulfate of potash [7778-80-5] K2SO4, are produced from brines in the United States... 

Three brine potash operations are located in Utah at Moab, Ogden, and Wendover and one in California at Seades Lake. Operations in Seades Lake produce both mudate and sulfate of potash. The Ogden operation produces sulfate of potash. The others produce muriate. 

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). 

Domestic potash production suppHes one-third of U.S. consumption. The rest comes from mines in Canada and Europe. Pnces of both KCl and K2SO4 fluctuate. KCl ranges between 65 to 95 dollars per ton. Sulfate of potash sells for 150 to 190 dollars per ton. 

W. H. Husband, Application of Solution Mining to the Recovery of Potash, presented at the Annual Meeting of the AIME, New York, 1971. 

Bark, wood, refuse 10-20 H37X5 Muriate of potash 77 B28... 

---