Phosphoric Acid by Wet Process: Heavy Metals in Phosphoric Acid and Their Removal

The literature reports on the results of studies that have approached trends of greater significance, such as:

Determination of heavy metal quantity needed by the human body and plants, as well as of the optimum permissible levels

Evaluation of biotoxic potential, including manifestations in the cases of deficiency or overdosage

Almost all toxic metals are to be found in phosphate rocks, and thus implicitly in fertilizers. The most frequent are Cd, Ni, Pb, Zn, Cu, V, Mn, Mo, and Hg. Most of these metals are necessary to life, but each has an optimum permissible threshold which when exceeded leads to biotoxic phenomena.