OREANDA-NEWS.  January 23, 2014. The National Science and Technology Award Conference was held on Jan 10 at the Great Hall of the People.

During the conference, the 1.2-million-ton potassium sulphate packaged technology at Lop Nor salt lake developed by the Changsha and Lehigh institutes won first place at the national scientific progress awards. The award was another breakthrough by ChemChina after its sylvite resources development and utilization at Lop Nor won first place in the national scientific progress awards in 2005.

“The packaged technology development is the biggest of its kind worldwide,” said Wei Yeqiu, head of the Changsha Institute.

China is a large agricultural country, raising 20 percent of the world's population with 9 percent of arable land. Therefore, it’s important to improve unit yield. According to statistics, fertilizer contributes 50 percent to increases in grain yield. China is the second biggest potash consumer in the world, and about 23.3 million hectares of its arable land lacks potassium, forcing it to import more than 6 million tons of potassium every year. The world’s potash resources and potash market are monopolized by a few foreign companies, so the domestic potash supply has been held over a barrel for a long time, directly endangering China’s food security.

ChemChina’s Changsha and Lehigh institutes joined hands with SDIC Xinjiang Luobupo Potash Co to carry out research on potassium sulphate production using brine from Lop Nor’s magnesium sulfate-containing salt lake. They successfully came up with a new process and technology to produce potassium sulphate. They developed technologies for brine exploitation, salt pan mineral collection, and key transportation and processing equipment. Special research was also carried out to recover kainite and develop transportation technology and equipment to solve problems in the massive mining and processing of the potash resources at Lop Nor. The biggest potassium sulphate production unit has been built in the west of the Lop Nor hinterland, marking a great achievement in China’s potassium sulphate technology development. The technology can save 1.9 tons of fresh water per ton of product, or 2.3 million tons of fresh water a year, playing a significant role in the water-strapped area, according to Huang Junwei, director of the Lehigh Institute.

SDIC Xinjiang owns dozens of square meters of salt pans, and its potash fertilizers enjoy a big market share and promising prospects, according to Li Hao, general manager of SDIC Xinjiang. The company’s Lop Nor potassium sulphate is made out of natural raw materials from the Lop Nor salt pan. The potassium sulphate boasts indices above and beyond other premium products in the industry and zero free acid. It’s chloride-free, which is rare in the industry worldwide. The product has been widely recognized and recommended, especially for tobacco, tea and premium fruits. Potassium sulphates outperform potassium chlorides in improving crop and soil quality, and specifically help vegetables and fruits that are sensitive to chloride. At the moment, China consumes 2 million tons of potassium sulphate a year at an annual growth of 12 percent.

The project has applied for 20 national patents, 18 of which have been approved, including five patents for inventions. Two national standards were born and revised out of the project. After running for more than four years, the single-plant production scale is now the world’s largest, featuring top-notch production quality. The product contains 51.9 percent potassium oxide and a processing recovery rate of 57.54 percent, 67 percent being the ideal in theory. It accounts for 26 percent of the world’s total and takes up more than 78 percent of the domestic market. For the past three years, the project has yielded 3.55 million tons of potassium sulphate, with 4.65 billion yuan (\\$769.6 million) in after-tax profits and 2.09 billion in taxes. It has changed the potassium sulphate production landscape and brought China’s potash fertilizer self-sufficiency rate from 30 percent to 50 percent in order to guarantee food security. Findings from the project could also be used in other sulphate-containing salt lakes in China and abroad.