Phosphoric acid is an important product used in industrial applications such as the manufacture of agricultural phosphate fertilizers, detergents, pesticides, metal coating, etc. Due to its non-toxic and mildly acidic nature, phosphoric acid is also used in other applications including food flavoring, soft drinks, pharmaceuticals, dental products, cosmetics, and skin care products.
Phosphoric acid is produced by mining the naturally occurring phosphate rock and processing it via a wet process or a thermal process. The wet process consists of three main steps:
The phosphate rock is first ground and fed to a reactor vessel for an acidulation reaction with sulfuric acid.
The concentration of the acids during the wet process can be measured in-line with the K-Patents Process Refractometer PR-43-GP. The refractometer is installed directly in the process line to provide realtime measurement of the sulfuric and phosphoric acid concentrations, eliminating the need for sampling and laboratory titration tests.
