Potash

Potash (/ˈpɒtæʃ/ POT-ash) includes various mined and manufactured salts that contain potassium in water-soluble form.^[1] The name derives from pot ash, plant ashes or wood ash soaked in water in a pot, the primary means of manufacturing potash before the Industrial Era. The word potassium is derived from potash.^[2]

Potash is produced worldwide in amounts exceeding 71.9 million tonnes (~45.4 million tonnes K₂O equivalent^[5]) per year as of 2021, with Canada being the largest producer, mostly for use in fertilizer.^[6] Various kinds of fertilizer-potash constitute the single greatest industrial use of the element potassium in the world. Potassium was first derived in 1807 by electrolysis of caustic potash (potassium hydroxide).^[7]

^ Potash, USGS 2008 Minerals Yearbook
^ Davy, Humphry (1808). "On some new phenomena of chemical changes produced by electricity, in particular the decomposition of the fixed alkalies, and the exhibition of the new substances that constitute their bases; and on the general nature of alkaline bodies". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. 98: 32. doi:10.1098/rstl.1808.0001.
^ "Production and use of potassium chloride" (PDF). International Potash Institute. p. 17.
^ "Production and Use of Potassium" (PDF). Better Crops. 82 (3): 6. 1998 – via International Plant Nutrition Institute.
^ Chemically pure KCl (96% of world potash capacity^[3]) contains 63.17% K₂O equivalent^[4]
^ "Potash facts". natural-resources.canada.ca. 2018-01-23. Retrieved 2023-09-06.
^ Knight, David (1992). Humphry Davy: Science and Power. Oxford: Blackwell. pp. 66. ISBN 9780631168164.

[usgs2-1] Potash, USGS 2008 Minerals Yearbook

[2] Davy, Humphry (1808). "On some new phenomena of chemical changes produced by electricity, in particular the decomposition of the fixed alkalies, and the exhibition of the new substances that constitute their bases; and on the general nature of alkaline bodies". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. 98: 32. doi:10.1098/rstl.1808.0001.

[3] "Production and use of potassium chloride" (PDF). International Potash Institute. p. 17.

[4] "Production and Use of Potassium" (PDF). Better Crops. 82 (3): 6. 1998 – via International Plant Nutrition Institute.

[5] Chemically pure KCl (96% of world potash capacity^[3]) contains 63.17% K₂O equivalent^[4]

[6] "Potash facts". natural-resources.canada.ca. 2018-01-23. Retrieved 2023-09-06.

[7] Knight, David (1992). Humphry Davy: Science and Power. Oxford: Blackwell. pp. 66. ISBN 9780631168164.

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