Magnesium hydroxide is an important magnesium chemical product. As an alkali agent with extremely strong buffering properties and efficient chemical adsorption properties, it is widely used in environmental protection, ceramic materials, medicine and other fields. In recent years, due to its characteristics of high decomposition temperature, high thermal stability, non-toxic, smokeless and smoke suppression, it has developed rapidly in the field of inorganic flame retardants. Magnesium hydroxide is alkaline and soluble in acidic and ammonium salt solutions. Compared with sodium hydroxide, it has obvious advantages in various properties, which is also an important reason why magnesium hydroxide is widely used.
High-purity magnesium hydroxide specifically refers to high-purity magnesium hydroxide produced by chemical methods. Currently, the main domestic supplier is , and its product specifications generally have a particle size between 35-40 μm. In addition to being used as the basic raw material for various high-purity magnesia, high-purity sintered magnesia, and high-purity fused magnesia, high-purity magnesium hydroxide itself also has a wide range of uses.
Among the global high-purity magnesium hydroxide manufacturers, European and American companies and Japanese companies are in the leading position. These two companies have complete high-purity magnesium hydroxide product structures and strong competitiveness. Other high-purity magnesium hydroxide manufacturers include Russia, the United States, Japan and South Korea. In 2021, global demand for high-purity magnesium hydroxide will be 360,000 tons, a year-on-year increase of 8.5%.
At present, Japan and the United States, which are leading the industry, strictly keep their production processes secret and even give up the benefits brought by patent applications. However, the production technology of high-purity magnesium hydroxide in China is relatively backward, and the special high-purity magnesium hydroxide products produced by most enterprises generally have the characteristics of low performance and unstable quality.
In 2021, the largest application consumption field of global magnesium hydroxide consumption is environmental protection (industrial wastewater treatment and industrial flue gas desulfurization, etc.), accounting for 45.0% of total consumption; flame retardant applications account for 28.5%, and other industrial applications account for 26.5%. Use as a flame retardant is the fastest growing area of magnesium hydroxide usage. In addition, in the pulp and paper industry, the increasing use of magnesium hydroxide as an alternative neutralizing agent and cellulose protective agent will also drive the growth of magnesium hydroxide from 2022 to 2027.
In developed countries around the world, the applications of magnesium hydroxide are mostly related to environmental projects, such as flue gas desulfurization, acid wastewater treatment, heavy metal ion removal, and flame retardants. Among them, more than 60% of magnesium hydroxide products in developed countries are used as flame retardants in wire, cable and other industries.
The main raw materials for the production of magnesium hydroxide in my country include brucite, lightly burned powder, brine and brucite. Liaoning mainly uses brucite as raw material, using mechanical crushing and ultra-fine crushing processes to produce magnesium hydroxide products; Liaoning, Shandong, Hebei and other places use light-burned powder direct hydration method to produce heavy magnesium hydroxide; Hebei, Shandong, Magnesium hydroxide is produced by brine synthesis in the coastal areas of Jiangsu and Zhejiang; magnesium hydroxide is produced by synthesis in Shanxi, Qinghai and other places, using salt lake brine and hydrochlorite as raw materials.
As of the end of 2021, my country’s high-purity magnesium hydroxide production capacity is approximately 220,000 tons. Among them, the largest manufacturer of high-purity magnesium hydroxide is the company. In 2021, the company’s magnesium hydroxide production capacity will reach 155,000 tons, and the output value will be 1.63 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.2%.
The largest amount of domestic flame retardants is magnesium hydroxide produced by mineral processing. High-purity magnesium hydroxide is only used in the sheathing of nuclear power, electronic wires, rail transit, optical cables and other cables, as well as other special coatings and other fields. However, The dosage of high-purity magnesium hydroxide is increasing year by year. It is expected that the market demand for high-purity magnesium hydroxide in my country’s flame retardant industry will reach 100,000 tons/year in the next few years.