Uses of Phosphate

IN the decreasing order of the tonnages involved, the uses of phosphates can be grouped conveniently into three general classes, namely, fertilizer; chemicals for military, industrial, and technical purposes; and mineral feed for livestock. The quantity of phosphate used as fertilizer, principally in the form of superphosphate, has always exceeded by far that used for all other purposes, though in recent years a marked increase has occurred in its consumption for the other two general classes of uses. Prior to the present century large quantities of superphosphate, as well as a considerable portion of the production of phosphorus chemicals, score made from bone materials which were plentiful and cheap in some areas and which could be more easily processed than phosphate rock for the manufacture of chemicals. Today, however phosphate rock has almost completely displaced bone as a raw material for the manufacture of chemically processed phosphates in nearly all countries of the world.