Recycling of Phosphate from Animal Bones

Phosphorus is essential for food production and modern agriculture currently sources phosphorus fertilizers from finite phosphate rock. The 2008 food and phosphate fertilizer price spikes triggered increased concerns regarding the depletion timeline of phosphate rock reserves. While estimates range from 30 to 300 years and are shrouded by lack of publicly available data and substantial uncertainty, there is a general consensus that the quality and accessibility of remaining reserves are decreasing and costs will increase. Increasing environmental, economic, geopolitical and social concerns about the short and long-term use of phosphate rock in agriculture means there is a need to reassess the way crops obtain their phosphorus and humanity is fed. The animal bones are generally disposed of as waste by abattoirs in large cities and towns and take many years to decompose and yet they are a rich source of phosphate that can be harvested and used in fertilizer production. This study set out to prepare bone phosphate enriched phosphoric acid from the otherwise discarded animal bones. The extracted bone-phosphate enriched phosphoric acid was reacted with ammonia to generate the diammonium phosphate (NH4)2HPO4) fertilizer.