Phosphoric Acid Market Trends

Growth Drivers

• Increasing Demand for Phosphate Fertilizers in Agriculture – The increased demand for phosphoric acid is driven by the growing population across the globe, which has made fertilizer production from phosphoric acid more and more important. The world's population is expected to increase, as set out by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Increase by a further two billion, which will reach 9.9 billion in 2050. The growing population is contributing to an increased demand for food, which can be supplied by the cultivation of crops fed with fertilizers.
• Rising Product Launches to Flourish the Market – In order to improve the accuracy and overall functionality of new products, manufacturers have introduced a set of measures. For instance, in March 2017, the Phosphoric Acid catalyst Polymax 850 was introduced by Clariant, a producer of specialty chemicals that is capable of converting oils to gasoline for plasticizers. In addition, market players are looking to expand their phosphoric acid product range in various sectors of the pharmaceutical industry and commercial sectors.
• Surge in Usage of Phosphoric Acid in Healthcare Application – According to the most recent expenditure data, global health spending has grown over the past 20 years, doubling in real terms to reach USD 8.5 trillion in 2019 and 9.8% of GDP, up from 8.5 percent in 2000. It is predicted that this boom would continue over the forecast period.
• Increasing Recovery of Rare Earth Elements from Phosphoric Acid – Based on the elimination of impurities from phosphoric acid and phosphogypsum a process called sulfuric acid recovery is used to extract precious metal elements. The main challenge is that these products dilute the rare earth element content. In other decomposition, rare earth elements are transported completely to leaching solutions in the process of HNO3, H3PO4, or HCl, which is followed up by extraction of these rare earth elements from this solution. Reports cite about 50 million tonnes of rare earth are stored in phosphate resources worldwide, with around one hundred thousand tons mined each year for the production of phosphate rock.

Challenges

• Reduced supply of phosphate - Phosphates are used as a basic component for the production of phosphatic acid and phosphate products such as fertilizers, food, or beverages. Nevertheless, the excessive application of phosphate as a fertilizer has caused widespread pollution and eutrophication. As a consequence, the world is beginning to run out of large reserves. So, the diminished supply of phosphates is a major growth-hindering factor.
• Environmental concerns & stringent regulations
• Side effects of phosphoric acid