Chemical characterization of phosphogypsum produced from raw phosphate rock from the phosphoric acid manufacturing process

Phosphorgypsum (an industrial by-product) is formed during the production of fertilizers and phosphoric acid from raw phosphate. It consists primarily of CaSO4 and contains impurities Zn, Pb, Cu, Cd, Ni, Cr, and many rare earth elements such as lanthanum and cerium.
The current article aims to study the chemical elemental content of phosphoric gypsum, and the results showed that the percentage of P2O5 in phosphoric gypsum is 2.7%, and the main component is calcium sulphate, with a percentage of 68.5%.
As for the element content, the concentrations of Cr, La, Ni, Ce, Pb, Cd l are explained in the research, and the reason for their presence is due to their transfer during the phosphoric acid manufacturing process from raw phosphate to phosphate by the wet method. As for the chemical elemental content of the raw phosphate taken, which was determined using AAS atomic absorption technology, , Cr, Pb, Cd respectively (9.2, 13.5, 10, 4.58, 0.46, 7.02) ppm.
The ETF values ​​showed a high transition rate for both cerium and lanthanum, reaching 72.59% for cerium and 68.47% for lanthanum. In general, it is noted that the largest percentage of lanthanides (cerium and lanthanium) was transferred to the phosphogypsum resulting from the manufacture of phosphoric acid by the wet method, while the highest percentage of P2O5 was transferred to the phosphoric acid formed.