Improving the specifications of Syrian raw phosphate by thermal treatment

Because of availability of raw phosphate in Syria and Syria’s advanced position in the production of raw phosphate, it is necessary to search for methods of treatment which allow to use the low-quality raw phosphate, and ensure good position in Syria, especially that the good raw phosphate continues to decrease. As well as the industry of phosphate fertilizers by acid treatment is associated with many difficulties which needs large production lines and advanced technologies. In this research we treated the Syrian raw phosphate by thermal way in order to: (1) Enriching of studied Syrian raw phosphate that contains proportions of 28.60% of phosphorus pentoxide P 2 O 5 , 6.12% of carbonate, which we got after treatment at 850 °C for 30 min on a phosphate containing proportion of 33.95% of phosphorus pentoxide P 2 O 5 , small amount of carbonate 0.75% and almost free of organic materials. (2) Preparing phosphate fertilizer by thermal treatment in the presence of sodium carbonate, where it was found that the best conditions are adding 40% of sodium carbonate by weight of phosphate ore; temperature 1100 °C; time 120 min.