Chemical Fertilizer Industry

　　Phosphates are commonly used in detergents as water softeners, but phosphate detergents are regulated in some areas because of the algae boom and bust cycle that affects phosphate discharge in watersheds.

　　In agriculture, phosphates are one of the three main nutrients for plants and are the main ingredient in fertilizers. Phosphate dust is mined from the phosphorus layer of sedimentary rocks. It used to be used without processing after mining, but now unprocessed phosphate is only used in organic farming. It is usually chemically processed into lime superphosphate, calcium superphosphate, or ammonium dihydrogen phosphate, all of which are more concentrated than phosphate and more soluble in water, so plants can absorb them more quickly.

　　Fertilizer grades generally have three numbers: the first refers to the amount of nitrogen, the second to the amount of phosphate, and the third to the alkaline water. So a 10-10-10 fertilizer would have 10% of each ingredient and the rest would be fillers.

　　Phosphate runoff from over-fertilized farmland can be the cause of eutrophication, red tides and subsequent hypoxia. This, like phosphate detergents, can cause hypoxia in fish and other aquatic organisms.

　　Refractories

　　Phosphates are used as binding agents in refractory materials. Phosphate binders are refractory binders with acidic orthophosphates or condensed phosphates as the main compound and with gelling properties. The bonding form of phosphate bonding agent is chemical reaction bonding or polymerization bonding. Phosphoric acid and alkali metal or alkaline earth metal oxides and their hydroxides made of bonding agent most of the air-hardened bonding agent, that is, do not need to be heated at room temperature can be coagulation and hardening effect. Phosphoric acid and amphoteric oxides and hydroxides or acidic oxides made of most of the bonding agent for the thermal hardness of the bonding agent, that is, must be heated to a certain temperature after the reaction to produce condensation and hardening effect. Phosphate used as a refractory binding agent in the ceramic bond before the production of low temperature range has a strong bonding strength, so it is widely used as an amorphous refractory and non-burning refractory bonding agent.

　　Phosphorus is an important mineral element essential to the human body, and the main source of phosphorus intake by the human body is natural food or food phosphate additives, and phosphate is one of the natural components of almost all foods. Since phosphate can improve or give a series of excellent performance of food, so as early as more than a hundred years ago began to be used in food processing, and a large number of use in the twentieth century seventy years later. Phosphates are one of the most widely used food additive categories with large dosages, and are widely used as important food ingredients and functional additives in the processing of meat products, poultry products, seafood, fruits, vegetables, dairy products, bakery products, beverages, potato products, seasonings, convenience foods, and so on. Phosphates used in food processing are usually sodium salt, calcium salt, potassium salt and iron salt and zinc salt as nutritional enhancers, there are more than thirty varieties of commonly used food-grade phosphates, sodium phosphate salt is the main type of consumption of food phosphates in China, and with the development of food processing technology, the consumption of potassium phosphate salt is also rising year by year.

　　In order to give full play to the synergistic effect between various phosphates as well as phosphates and other additives, and to meet the needs of the development of food processing technology, a variety of compound phosphates are often used as food ingredients and functional additives in practical applications, and the research and development of compound phosphates has increasingly become the development direction of the development and application of food additives of phosphate class.

　　Food Industry

　　According to the U.S. Food Chemical Compendium (FCC) phosphates in the food industry can be divided into 15 categories:

　　1, acidulant: phosphoric acid

　　2, anti-caking agent: calcium phosphate

　　3, antioxidant: calcium hypophosphite

　　4, buffering agent: diammonium hydrogen phosphate, ammonium dihydrogen phosphate, calcium hydrogen phosphate, calcium phosphate, calcium pyrophosphate, potassium dihydrogen phosphate, dipotassium hydrogen phosphate, sodium acid pyrophosphate, sodium dihydrogen phosphate, disodium hydrogen phosphate, sodium phosphate, sodium pyrophosphate

　　5、Dough improver: diammonium hydrogen phosphate, ammonium dihydrogen phosphate, calcium dihydrogen phosphate, calcium hydrogen phosphate

　　6、Emulsifiers: potassium phosphate, potassium polymetaphosphate, potassium pyrophosphate, sodium aluminum phosphate (alkaline), sodium metaphosphate (insoluble), sodium dihydrogen phosphate, disodium hydrogen phosphate, sodium hydrogen phosphate, sodium polyphosphate (glassy), sodium pyrophosphate

　　7, hardener: calcium dihydrogen phosphate

　　8、Humectant: potassium polymetaphosphate

　　9, Fermentation agent: diammonium hydrogen phosphate, ammonium dihydrogen phosphate, acid sodium pyrophosphate, sodium aluminum phosphate (acid)

　　10, Nutritional agents: calcium dihydrogen phosphate, calcium hydrogen phosphate, calcium phosphate, calcium pyrophosphate, iron phosphate, iron pyrophosphate, magnesium hydrogen phosphate, magnesium phosphate, manganese hypophosphite, sodium iron pyrophosphate, sodium phosphate, sodium phosphate, sodium pyrophosphate, sodium pyrophosphate, sodium pyrophosphate, sodium pyrophosphate, sodium pyrophosphate, sodium pyrophosphate, sodium pyrophosphate.