Abstract
The phosphorus (P) present in apatitic materials is largely in forms that are not readily available for most arable crops. Many attempts have been made to increase the dissolution of phosphate rock. Hence, soluble P or superphosphate used as fertilizer has been produced by the industrial acidification of apatite (Becker, 1980). Alternatives to high cost superphosphate have been studied. These are direct application of either apatite (Bolland et ai, 1988), or biological superphosphate or biosuper (Swaby, 1975). Biosuper has been produced by mixing apatite rock phosphate with elemental sulfur (Kittams, 1963; Rajan and Edge, 1980). Pathiratna et al. (1989) conducted a series of laboratory incubation studies and found that incubating mixtures of apatite and sulfur in powder or pellet form with a soil inoculum of Thiobacillus spp. increased the water-soluble P extracted and decreased the pH of the soil. They indicated that sulfuric acid produced from biological oxidation of elemental sulfur reacts with the apatite rock phosphate to produce in situ superphosphate in the soil. An acid pH is a necessary prerequisite for the dissolution of an essentially water-insoluble phosphate rock in soil (Robinson and Syers, 1990).
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Cantin, P., Karam, A., Guay, R. (1999). Solubilization of Phosphorus from Apatite by Sulfuric Acid Produced from the Microbiological Oxidation of Sulfur. In: Berthelin, J., Huang, P.M., Bollag, JM., Andreux, F. (eds) Effect of Mineral-Organic-Microorganism Interactions on Soil and Freshwater Environments. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-4683-2_27
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-4683-2_27
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