Economic Aspects of Utilizing Fluosilicic Acid as Raw Material for the Manufacture of Hydrofluoric Acid and Aluminium Fluoride

Fluosilicic acid (FSA) is a potential source of fluorine raw material instead of using fluorspar (fluorite ore) for the production of anhydrous hydrofluoric acid (AHF) and its further downstream products e.g. production of high quality and high density aluminium fluoride (see below typical flow chart for such technology (Fluosilicic acid process, p-280, [2]).Using fluosilicic acid as an alternative source of fluorine raw material makes sense basically if this alternative is significantly more attractive than simply using traditional fluorspar technology. This paper is an attempt to determine the economic conditions for implementing such FSA technology taking into account the following costs: costs of raw materials, costs of logistics, capital cost, etc which are specific to each technology (FSA or fluorspar technologies). Although all these factors are well known to affect economics of the process, this paper is a contribution to a better understanding and a better determination of influences and consequences of these costs on the profitability.