Comprehensive utilization of phosphogypsum: Scenarios, limitations, and perspectives

Abstract

Large-scale stockpiling of phosphogypsum (PG) causes severe soil and water contamination, posing a global ecological threat. Despite diverse attempts to reuse PG in engineering construction, agricultural amendment, chemical preparation, and high-value resource recovery, its large-scale application remains limited by inherent impurities, insufficient stability, and potential secondary contamination. This review systematically summarizes PG generation status and environmental hazards, analyzes the technical bottlenecks of current PG utilization approaches, and highlights an innovative PG soilization method that enables large-scale sustainable consumption of PG. The key restrictive factors and future research directions are further proposed, aiming to promote PG resource recycling and provide theoretical references for solid waste ecological remediation.

Keywords

phosphogypsum / environmental risks / ecological utilization / solid waste soilization / constructed technosols

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