Can Potassium fulvate be obtained from lignite without potassium fulvate content?
The answer is negative.
Generally speaking, lignite can also be divided into “young” lignite and “old” lignite.
The older the lignite is, the larger its molecular weight is. “Young” lignite may contain a higher amount of potassium fulvate , but the potassium fulvate content in the “old” lignite, which is similar to leonardite, may be too low to be detected. Therefore, as long as we do not use particularly “old” lignite, we are likely to get good potassium fulvate products, regardless of the level of content in the lignite.
The author of the article once used the lignite from Zhaotong, Yunnan (“young” lignite with a potassium fulvate content of 10.8%) and the lignite from Huolinhe, Inner Mongolia (much “older” than the sample from Zhaotong, with a potassium fulvate content of 2.6%) to make potassium fulvate via oxidation reaction of hydrogen peroxide.
The result is: the finished product made from Zhaotong sample had a potassium fulvate content of 46% while the finished product made from Huolinhe sample has a 53% content of potassium fulvate. Therefore the key element we need to pay attention to when we make potassium fulvate is the age of lignite, instead of focusing our attention on raw materials with high levels of potassium fulvate.