Calcium carbonate is an inorganic compound
Chemical Formula CaCO
Commonly known as limestone, limestone, stone powder, marble and so on
It is alkaline, basically insoluble in water, and easily soluble in hydrochloric acid
One of the most common substances on Earth
Found in aragonite, calcite, limestone,
Marble, travertine and other rocks
It is also a major component of animal bones or shells
It is an important building material
It is widely used in industry
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Ubiquitous calcium carbonate
In our daily lives
Calcium carbonate is everywhere
Calcite crystals, marble floor tiles, fireproof ceilings
Plump, rich, colorful pearls
Shells of various shapes, as well as egg shells
The main ingredient is CaCO₃
The cave gives people a mysterious, dreamy color
A variety of stalactites, stalagmites, mantles and stone flowers
All give people a sense of beauty
The cave is made up of lactite limestone
The main ingredient is CaCO₃
The cause of a series of changes in stalactites
Also derived from the properties of calcium carbonate
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The development process of China's calcium carbonate industry
The world's calcium carbonate industrial production has a history of 170 years, and China's calcium carbonate industry started late, less than 100 years ago. However, relying on rich and high-quality limestone, calcite resources and a broad consumer market, China's calcium carbonate industry has developed rapidly, and gradually developed into a world calcium carbonate industry power, and has maintained the status of the world's largest country in calcium carbonate production and consumption for more than ten years, the production and consumption of light calcium carbonate have reached more than 50% of the world's total, and the output of heavy calcium carbonate accounts for more than 25% of the world's total.
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Development trend of calcium carbonate products
Lightweight calcium carbonate
Commonly known as light calcium, mainly based on limestone as raw material, calcined, digested, carbonized, dehydrated, dried, graded and other processes to obtain powder materials.
By the end of 2019, there were more than 200 light calcium carbonate production enterprises in China, with a total production capacity of 8.5 million tons and an actual output of 7.2 million tons. Lightweight calcium carbonate as a whole has entered the development platform period, product upgrading, technological innovation, energy saving and consumption reduction have become the direction of industry development. In the future, we need to focus on the development of refined, functional and specialized products with large demand, high scientific and technological content and high added value.
Heavy calcium carbonate
Commonly known as heavy calcium, it is mainly made of natural minerals such as calcite, marble, limestone, chalk, and han white jade as raw materials, and the powder material obtained by mechanical grinding and processing.
In 2019, China's heavy calcium carbonate production capacity was 26 million tons, and the actual output was 22 million tons. The production capacity of ordinary heavy calcium has become saturated, and the product price is low, the scientific and technological content and added value are not high, and it is not suitable for large-scale expansion. Ultra-fine and active heavy calcium, domestic production capacity can not meet the demand, still has a large market potential.
High-quality ultra-fine heavy calcium can replace some of the relatively high-priced light calcium or even nano-calcium in some fields, and can also be compounded into some ultra-fine heavy calcium in the production process of light calcium or nano-calcium to reduce production costs, improve product quality, broaden the field of application, reduce energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions.
Nano calcium carbonate
Nano calcium carbonate is a new type of ultra-fine solid powder material developed in the 1980s, and its particle size is between 0.01 and 0.1 μm.
In 2019, the production capacity of nano calcium carbonate reached 1.5 million tons, the actual output was about 950,000 t, according to the different application fields of the product, the price per ton of product was 1500 to 3 500 yuan, which had a larger profit margin compared to ordinary light calcium.
Mainly used in high-end rubber and plastic products, papermaking, silicone glue, automotive chassis paint, ink and other industries, product performance has basically reached the world's advanced level. Nano calcium carbonate as a high-end product in the series of calcium carbonate products, in many areas will gradually replace ordinary calcium carbonate, there is a better market prospects, it is expected that in the next few years, China's nano calcium carbonate demand annual growth rate of 5% to 10%.
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Widely used calcium carbonate
The main applications of calcium carbonate products in China are concentrated in plastics, papermaking, rubber, coatings, inks, adhesives, daily chemicals and other fields.
(1) Application of calcium carbonate in the paper industry
The paper industry is the largest application area of calcium carbonate, with an annual consumption of more than 10 million tons, replacing wood pulp and other pigments, improving the brightness, opacity, porosity, bulk density and so on of paper.
(2) Application of calcium carbonate in the coating industry
Calcium carbonate whiteness is high, oil absorption value is low, can reduce the amount of emulsion required, not only reduce the cost of latex paint, but also play a skeleton role, improve the coating thickness, hardness, wear resistance, at the same time, ultra-fine heavy calcium carbonate also has a strong spatial barrier ability, applied to the paint can give full play to the role of titanium dioxide hiding force, reduce the amount of titanium dioxide added. At present, the annual output of coatings in China is about 14 million tons, and the demand for heavy calcium is as high as more than 3 million tons.
(3) Application of calcium carbonate in plastics industry
Calcium carbonate is inexpensive and can play a whitening role in filling plastic products, which helps to improve the dimensional stability, rigidity and rheology of plastic products and improve the processing performance of plastics. China as a large country in the production and consumption of plastic products, powder as a filler accounted for 10% of the total amount of plastic products, to calcium carbonate in a variety of powder fillers accounted for 70% of the total amount of calculation, at present, China's plastics industry every year use a variety of specifications of heavy calcium carbonate at least more than 2.1 million tons, with broad economic benefits.
(4) Application of calcium carbonate in rubber industry
Calcium carbonate filled in rubber, can increase the volume of products, thereby saving expensive rubber dosage to reduce costs, in addition, heavy calcium carbonate filled into the rubber can obtain higher tear strength, tensile strength, wear resistance than pure rubber, greatly reducing the vulcanization time of rubber, adjusting consistency, is a high-quality non-toxic environmental protection materials.
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China's main calcium carbonate industry base
At present, the development of calcium carbonate industry in China is basically developed around the source of resources. What are the main calcium carbonate production bases in China?
Hezhou, Guangxi
Guangxi Hezhou white marble resources ("Hezhou white") is rich in reserves, with preliminary proven reserves of about 2.6 billion cubic meters, calcium carbonate content of >99%, whiteness > 95%, and technical indicators reaching the level of China's special grade mines.
▲Hezhou white marble
Hezhou is the industrial demonstration base of 100 billion yuan of calcium carbonate in Guangxi, and the largest production base of heavy calcium powder and ecological granite in China. It has won the honorary titles of "China Hezhou • Heavy Calcium Capital" and "China Hezhou • Granite Capital". At present, the development of the industry is led by Hezhou, forming a demonstration base for the low-carbon industrial chain of Hezhou, Laibin, Hechi and Baise calcium carbonate.
Yongfeng County, Jiangxi
Jiangxi Yongfeng limestone mineral resources are unique, the county limestone bare surface area of more than 40 square kilometers, has proven reserves of 11 billion tons, is the largest rich mining area in Jiangnan; marble resources reserves of 200 million cubic meters, with Guangyuan Chemical, Jiufeng nano calcium, Keyue Technology and many other leading calcium carbonate enterprises.
Zhejiang Jiande
Zhejiang Jiande is rich in calcium carbonate resources, with a predicted resource of 8 billion tons of limestone and 156 million tons of identified resource reserves; Dali rock is predicted to have 70 million tons of resources and 52.3555 million tons of identified resource reserves; and calcite retains 4.1651 million tons of identified resource reserves.
Nanzhao County, Henan
Henan Nanzhao County calcite reserves of about 1 billion tons, of which CaCO3 content of more than 95%, whiteness of more than 92, can be used to produce food grade calcium carbonate powder calcite reserves of more than 50 million tons; rich resource reserves, creating Nanzhao to develop calcium carbonate industry incomparable advantages, so that Nanzhao has become the largest calcium carbonate mineral base in central China, known as the "Central Plains Calcium Capital".
Lianzhou City, Guangdong Province
Lianzhou City, Guangdong Province, is known as "China's calcium carbonate city", calcium carbonate mineral resources reserves of 61.418 billion tons, of which limestone resources of 53.473 billion tons, Dali rock (heavy calcium carbonate) resources of 7.836 billion tons, CaCO3 content of 49.69-54.95%, whiteness of 89.2-98.3. Marble mineral resources are mainly distributed in Xijiang, Longping, Xingzi and Dalubian four towns, the length of its vein extension is about 50 kilometers, and the average vein width is 900 meters.
Quzhou City, Zhejiang Province
Qujiang District, Quzhou City, Zhejiang Province, rich in limestone and calcite resources, has proven reserves of 6 billion tons, high grade, less impurities; limestone reserves and grades are ranked first in Zhejiang Province, with the development of calcium carbonate production resource advantages, initially formed the above town as the center of the calcium carbonate production base, with Jinxiong calcium industry, Xinxue nano calcium, southern calcium carbonate and other calcium carbonate enterprises.
Chizhou City, Anhui Province
Chizhou City holds calcite resource reserves of 540 million tons, accounting for 30% of the country's retained reserves, with high whiteness grade, and the main mineral deposits are concentrated in Nanyang Township, Youhua Township, Guichi District and other places in Qingyang County. Limestone holds 1.968 billion tons of resource reserves, potential resources of 33.5 billion tons, and 6 large and medium-sized deposits, mainly concentrated in Guichi District and Dongzhi County along the river. Omea Calcium (Anhui Qingyang) Co., Ltd. is located in Nanyang Industrial Park, Lingyang Town, Qingyang County, Anhui Province.
Jingxing County, Hebei Province
Hebei Jingxing County has proven limestone reserves of 13 billion tons, calcium oxide content of 55%, the quality is the best in the north of the Yangtze River; dolomite reserves of 43 million tons, reserves, quality is also well-known throughout the country, known as "China's calcium and magnesium hometown".
Linwu County, Hunan
The total reserves of Dali rock exceed 1 billion tons, and its calcium carbonate content is greater than 97%, which is an ideal raw material for processing nano calcium carbonate.
Baoxing County, Sichuan
Baoxing County, Ya'an City, Sichuan Province, is the production and development base of heavy calcium carbonate for industrial use in western China, and the marble resources are very rich, only the Han white jade belt is more than 42 kilometers long, the prospective reserves are as high as 2.1 billion cubic meters, and the minable capacity is 1.7 billion cubic meters, accounting for 56.9% of the province's proven marble reserves.
Baoxing County marble mine is mainly white, delicate texture, crystal clear, good crystallization, whiteness of more than 95 degrees, is the production of marble heavy calcium carbonate and its downstream products of high-quality raw materials, can be used to produce pharmaceutical grade calcium carbonate.
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brief summary
With the high-quality and healthy development of China's economy, the demand for high-end calcium carbonate products in plastics, rubber, coatings, paper and other industries will increase sharply, and the calcium carbonate industry has strong development prospects for a long time to come.
The homogenization of global technology and products has led to strong competition in the global market, and China's high-end calcium carbonate product industry is facing challenges and opportunities.
The development of domestic high-grade nano calcium carbonate, ultra-fine calcium carbonate, medical grade and food grade calcium carbonate products will accelerate the progress; functionalized and specialized calcium carbonate products are also the direction of future development; in addition, the development of new surfactants that improve the properties of calcium carbonate powders is also a problem that the calcium carbonate industry needs to overcome urgently.
Source:
1 Review and trend analysis of the 60-year development history of China's calcium carbonate industry, Liu Baoshu, etc
2 The current situation and development suggestions of China's heavy calcium carbonate industry Mineral protection and utilization 2015 Maya Meng, Tan Xiumin, Zhang Xiufeng, etc