The potassium carbonate market has broad development space, and my country’s production capacity needs to continue to improve in the future.

Potassium carbonate, also known as potassium alkali, is an inorganic substance with the chemical formula K2CO3. It appears as a white crystalline powder and is easily soluble in water. The aqueous solution is alkaline and insoluble in ethanol, acetone and ether. It is highly hygroscopic and will be exposed to The air can absorb carbon dioxide and moisture and turn it into potassium bicarbonate. According to different packing densities, potassium carbonate can be divided into two categories: light potassium carbonate and heavy potassium carbonate.

There are various methods for producing potassium carbonate, mainly including electrolysis method, ion exchange method, plant ash method, Lubulan method, etc. There are two most commonly used production methods, namely electrolysis method, which refers to the electrolysis of potassium chloride to generate potassium hydroxide solution, and then through carbonization, evaporation, filtration, calcination and other steps of carbon dioxide to generate potassium carbonate; ion exchange method, It refers to the method of exchanging cation exchange resin with potassium chloride, then using ammonium bicarbonate to elute into a dilute potassium bicarbonate solution, and generating potassium carbonate through evaporation, carbonization, crystallization, calcination and other steps.

Potassium carbonate has a wide range of applications. It can be used as a flour improver, drying agent, leavening agent, and preservative in the food field; it can be used as a reducing agent in the printing and dyeing field; it can be used in the production of methionine, penicillin potassium, cinnamic acid, progesterone, Raw materials such as cortisone are used in the pharmaceutical field; they can be used in the pesticide field as raw materials for the production of dicamba, high-efficiency flufenacet, plant growth regulator paclobutrazol, and low-toxicity fungicide triadimefon; and they can be used as raw materials for the production of glass. Raw materials are used in the field of glass to reduce the oxide content in the glass and improve the transparency and refractive properties of the glass.

According to the “China Potassium Carbonate Industry Market Monitoring and Future Development Prospects Research Report 2023-2027” released by the Industrial Research Center, In recent years, driven by the rapid development of the downstream market, the demand for potassium carbonate has continued to increase and its scale has continued to expand. The domestic potassium carbonate market size will reach 1.69 billion yuan in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 2.3%. Among them, light potassium carbonate is the mainstream product in the domestic potassium carbonate market, and its current average annual growth rate of consumption has exceeded that of heavy potassium carbonate.

The main potassium carbonate production companies in my country include Salt Lake Co., Ltd., Xinji Chemical Industry, Sanfu Co., Ltd., Zangge Mining, Zhenxing Fertilizer, Dayang Biotechnology, Yankuang Lunan Chemical Co., Ltd., etc. Among them, Salt Lake Co., Ltd. is the main domestic producer of heavy potassium carbonate, and Ocean Life is the main producer of light potassium carbonate. At present, the number of domestic potassium carbonate enterprises with technological and scale advantages is relatively small, and their products are highly dependent on imported products. In the future, the production capacity of domestic enterprises needs to be improved.

Industry analysts said that potassium carbonate is an important chemical raw material and can be widely used in pesticides and food , medicine, printing and dyeing, glass and other fields, the market development space is relatively broad. After development in recent years, the number of potassium carbonate manufacturers in my country has continued to increase. Salt Lake Co., Ltd. and Ocean Biotechnology are the largest suppliers of heavy and light potassium carbonate in my country. However, domestic potassium carbonate import dependence is still relatively strong at present, and local companies will need to continue to improve production capabilities in the future.