Abstract

GUIROLA-CESPEDES, Claudia; GONZALEZ-SUAREZ, Erenio  and  LEY-CHONG, Nestor. Design of a chemical plant to obtain phosphoric acid based on the study of the need for phosphate products in Cuba. RTQ [online]. 2023, vol.43, n.2, pp. 406-420.  Epub May 30, 2023. ISSN 2224-6185.

The production of phosphoric acid as a source of numerous phosphate products represents one pf the issues of greatest economic interest for Cuba today. The industry of this product derives a series of phosphates that can be used in the production of fertilizers, which, in our country, is very scarce and has a high demand. In addition, there are natural reserves of phosphorite rock that can be used to produce phosphoric acid, develop the fertilizer industry and in turn boost agriculture and the national economy. The objective of this work is to propose the preliminary design of a chemical plant to obtain phosphoric acid from Cuban phosphorite. For this, a bibliographic search was carried out that provided very useful data for the process and from it the production scheme was established with fundamental stages of chemical reaction, filtration and evaporation. The corresponding material balances were made and the necessary equipment was determined, which includes reactors, press filters and an evaporator. Finally, the economic evaluation was carried out through the determination of profitability indicators, which revealed a net present value of $10 205 137,34, an internal rate of return of 65% and an investment recovery period of approximately 1,8 years, which demonstrates that the process of obtaining phosphoric acid from phosphorite is economically viable.

Keywords : phosphoric acid; phosphate rock; fertilizers; phosphate products.

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