Comparative Study of the Transformation of Phosphogypsum and Pure Gypsum into Valuables Products

The production of phosphoric acid in the world generates an enormous amount of a by-product named phosphogypsum (PG). A large quantity of this PG is stockpiled or dumped into environment, causing several environmental problems. This research study proposes an attractive process for transforming the PG into calcite (CaCO3) and thenardite (Na2SO4). A parallel study of the conversion of pure gypsum (GRH) was also realized to compare their reactivity with that of PG. The following of the PG and GRH conversion reaction was evaluated using by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). While, the quality of the products obtained under the optimum condition were proved by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), flame photometer (FP), inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA-DTA). A result revealed that, PG rest more reactive than GRH and yields the desired results at short reaction time under room temperature.