Title: Exergy analysis of the process of wet-process phosphoric acid production with full utilisation of sulphur contained in the waste phosphogypsum

Authors: Lubka G. Atanasova

Addresses: Inorganic Chemical Technology Department, University ''Prof. Dr. A. Zlatarov'' – Burgas, 8010 Burgas, Prof.Yakimov str.1, Bulgaria

Abstract: The wet-process phosphoric acid is produced by decomposition of phosphate raw materials with sulphuric acid. This gives a large amount of waste product-phosphogypsum. The thermochemical decomposition of phosphogypsum gives a gas rich in SO₂. This gas is processed to obtain sulphuric acid, which is fed back into phosphoric acid production. The aim of this paper is to perform exergy analysis of the wet-process phosphoric acid production including full recycling of the sulphur from the waste phosphogypsum. The results obtained from the analyses show that the utilisation of phosphogypsum increases the exergy efficiency of the phosphoric acid production and decreases to 20.86% when the phosphoric acid production is connected with the process of thermochemical decomposition of phosphogypsum.

Keywords: exergy analysis; wet-process phosphoric acid; sulphur recycling; waste phosphogypsum; exergy efficiency; thermochemical decomposition.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEX.2010.035515

International Journal of Exergy, 2010 Vol.7 No.6, pp.678 - 692

Published online: 30 Sep 2010 *

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