Potash Fertilisers From Felspars

Abstract

THE dearth of potassium salts in this country owing to the war has caused renewed attention to be devoted to the possibilities of preparing soluble potassium salts from the large deposits of felspar which are found in certain parts of the country. The problem has occupied the attention of chemists intermittently for many years, but the processes devised in the past have proved commercially unsuccessful, owing largely to the failure to obtain, along with the potash salts, other saleable products which might share the cost of manufacture. This difficulty would appear to have been largely overcome in the process patented by Mr. J. Rhodin, a Swedish inventor, in which, along with the soluble potassium salts, a marketable white cement is obtained. The successful results obtained b this process with Swedish felspars have been brought to the notice of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, and under the auspices of a subcommittee of the Fertilisers Committee of the Board further tests with British felspars from Roche, in Cornwall, and Loch Eriboll, in Sutherlandshire, have been carried out, the results of which are summarised in the February issue of the Journal of the Board of Agriculture.