IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v10y2018i5p1482-d145235.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Phosphorus Processing—Potentials for Higher Efficiency

Author

Listed:
  • Ludwig Hermann

    (Proman Management GmbH, Weingartenstrasse 92, 2214 Auersthal, Austria)

  • Fabian Kraus

    (Kompetenzzentrum Wasser Berlin gGmbH, Cicerostrasse 24, 10709 Berlin, Germany)

  • Ralf Hermann

    (Proman Management GmbH, Weingartenstrasse 92, 2214 Auersthal, Austria)

Abstract

In the aftermath of the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement (COP21) by virtually all United Nations, producing more with less is imperative. In this context, phosphorus processing, despite its high efficiency compared to other steps in the value chain, needs to be revisited by science and industry. During processing, phosphorus is lost to phosphogypsum, disposed of in stacks globally piling up to 3–4 billion tons and growing by about 200 million tons per year, or directly discharged to the sea. Eutrophication, acidification, and long-term pollution are the environmental impacts of both practices. Economic and regulatory framework conditions determine whether the industry continues wasting phosphorus, pursues efficiency improvements or stops operations altogether. While reviewing current industrial practice and potentials for increasing processing efficiency with lower impact, the article addresses potentially conflicting goals of low energy and material use as well as Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) as a tool for evaluating the relative impacts of improvement strategies. Finally, options by which corporations could pro-actively and credibly demonstrate phosphorus stewardship as well as options by which policy makers could enforce improvement without impairing business locations are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Ludwig Hermann & Fabian Kraus & Ralf Hermann, 2018. "Phosphorus Processing—Potentials for Higher Efficiency," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-19, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:5:p:1482-:d:145235
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/5/1482/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/5/1482/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Heckenmüller, Markus & Narita, Daiju & Klepper, Gernot, 2014. "Global availability of phosphorus and its implications for global food supply: An economic overview," Kiel Working Papers 1897, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gerald Steiner & Bernhard Geissler, 2018. "Sustainable Mineral Resource Management—Insights into the Case of Phosphorus," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-8, August.
    2. M Barka Outbakat & Khalil El Mejahed & Mohamed El Gharous & Kamal El Omari & Adnane Beniaich, 2022. "Effect of Phosphogypsum on Soil Physical Properties in Moroccan Salt-Affected Soils," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-16, October.
    3. Shang, Delei & Geissler, Bernhard & Mew, Michael & Satalkina, Liliya & Zenk, Lukas & Tulsidas, Harikrishnan & Barker, Lee & El-Yahyaoui, Adil & Hussein, Ahmed & Taha, Mohamed & Zheng, Yanhua & Wang, M, 2021. "Unconventional uranium in China's phosphate rock: Review and outlook," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    4. Alejandro Vega-Muñoz & Guido Salazar-Sepulveda & Juan Felipe Espinosa-Cristia & Jonathan Sanhueza-Vergara, 2021. "How to Measure Environmental Performance in Ports," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-18, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kataki, Sampriti & West, Helen & Clarke, Michèle & Baruah, D.C., 2016. "Phosphorus recovery as struvite: Recent concerns for use of seed, alternative Mg source, nitrogen conservation and fertilizer potential," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 142-156.
    2. Mohamed Bouabidi, 2023. "The surge in Tunisia foreign debt: causes and possible ways out," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 3(3), pages 1-23, March.
    3. Rami Rawashdeh, 2023. "Estimating short-run (SR) and long-run (LR) demand elasticities of phosphate," Mineral Economics, Springer;Raw Materials Group (RMG);Luleå University of Technology, vol. 36(2), pages 239-253, June.
    4. Olagunju, Kehinde Oluseyi & Feng, Siyi & Patton, Myles, 2021. "Dynamic relationships among phosphate rock, fertilisers and agricultural commodity markets: Evidence from a vector error correction model and Directed Acyclic Graphs," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    5. Jessica Stubenrauch & Beatrice Garske & Felix Ekardt, 2018. "Sustainable Land Use, Soil Protection and Phosphorus Management from a Cross-National Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-23, June.
    6. Michael Oster & Henry Reyer & Elizabeth Ball & Dario Fornara & John McKillen & Kristina Ulrich Sørensen & Hanne Damgaard Poulsen & Kim Andersson & Daniel Ddiba & Arno Rosemarin & Linda Arata & Paolo S, 2018. "Bridging Gaps in the Agricultural Phosphorus Cycle from an Animal Husbandry Perspective—The Case of Pigs and Poultry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-14, June.
    7. Micha, E. & Tsakiridis, A. & Ragkos, A., 2018. "Assessing the importance of soil testing in fertilizer use intensity: an econometric analysis of phosphorus fertilizer allocation in dairy farm systems," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277103, International Association of Agricultural Economists.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:5:p:1482-:d:145235. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.