Innovation of fused calcium magnesium phosphate products to promote industry development

Fused calcium magnesium phosphate (FMP) is an alkaline mineral fertilizer riched in P, Ca, Mg, Si and other nutrients. It can supply trace elements needed by plants, relieve acidic soil, effectively reduce heavy metal pollution and improve crop nutrition and quality. FMP has been considered as a low-content phosphate fertilizer for a long time. Its production and sales have dropped from nearly 10 million tons in peak period to about 1 million tons in recent years. Its market share is only about 1% of the total phosphate fertilizer, and its price is not high, which makes it difficult for enterprises to operate. In this paper, the nutrient availability of FMP was analyzed from the point of plant nutrition, make sure the necessary of FMP as an important fertilizer product. From present industrial technology bottlenecks, the output and market situation of FMP in recent years was analyzed through detailed data. Approaches were proposed for increasing quality and improving industrial profit of FMP at the end. Most of phosphorous ore resources are low in grade in China, FMP industry is developed to adapt this special situation. FMP contains 12%–20% of citric soluble P₂O₅. The availability of P in FMP is low at the beginning, but increases significantly with the extension of time. And then the P efficiency of FMP is higher than that of superphosphate in acidic soil at last. The availability of Ca, Mg and Si are much higher than those in most industrial slag, which could compensate the supply of alkaline ions and against acid stress, and the silicon also is required for the healthy growth of crops such as rice and sugar cans. So FMP is good not only as phosphorous fertilizer, but as multi-functional amendments, especially in China as the existence of large area of acid farmland. The approaches to promote the development of FMP should be considered from the following points: 1) From the product themselves, regulating the included trace elements and appeared as multifunctional soil and plant nutrient conditioner. 2) Producing granulated products to suit mechanical application and blend with other fertilizers. 3) Special product standard, including quality items, should be formulated to reflect the advantages of the FMP product. 4) Application methods should be studied according to various product characteristics. In general, the bottleneck of the FMP industry development could be broke through by technology and product innovation, precise marketing and services.