How Moroccan Researchers are Transforming phosphate rock by-products into Industrial Gold

At UM6P, scientists are doing what most would consider improbable: transforming industrial waste into strategic porous materials. Mining waste and Phosphogypsum, a byproduct long dismissed as environmental baggage, is being reimagined as a gateway to high-performance solid-state materials with variable porosities. The shift isn’t just technical. It’s a new way of thinking about value, waste, and African scientific leadership.

Across the world, phosphate-rich countries have faced the same conundrum: how to handle the massive tonnage of industrial byproducts generated by phosphate processing.

In Morocco, where the phosphate industry is both a backbone of the economy and a symbol of national ambition, one of the most persistent legacies of this extraction is phosphate rocks by-products; an enormous, little-used ‘waste’ of fertilizer oriented production.

But what if this so-called waste could become a commodity for industry, a specialty product? Not in theory, not in decades, but now through smart chemistry, system-level design, and rigorous science.

That’s precisely the leap being made by the team led by Professor Youssef Belmabkhout and Dr. Ayalew Assen at UM6P’s Applied Chemistry and Engineering Research Center of Excellence (ACER CoE).

Their first works was turning phosphogypsum – once a discarded byproduct – into the very backbone of advanced materials science.

Not through marginal gains, but by initiating a paradigm shift in how we understand industrial residues, catalysis, and circular value creation.

In a specific research journey targeting PG, the ACER team has devised a sustainable process to convert PG into not one but two classes of functional materials: zeolites and calcium-based metal-organic frameworks (Ca-MOFs). These porous solids are central to major industrial processes from CO₂ capture and alcohol dehydration and potentially could be used for molecular sensing and catalytic transformations.

Phosphogypsum is usually a liability. Morocco alone produces millions of tons per year, much of which is stockpiled in massive open-air dumps. Its chemical profile—dominated by CaSO₄·2H₂O, but also containing in silica, alumina, and trace metals—has long posed an environmental dilemma.

“how we look at it,” explained Prof. Belmabkhout, “not a waste but a source of different elements of the periodic table. Silica, alumina, calcium…and also tens of metals in trace quantities it’s all in there.”

The research approach is as elegant as it is strategic and simple. First, PG is dissolved in a mild alkaline solution. The silica and alumina are separated and used to synthesize a zeolite called cancrinite (CAN), while the calcium-rich residue is transformed into several forms of Ca-MOFs.

Among the MOFs produced: SBMOF-2, Ca-BDC, and Ca-BTC; each with tailored properties for industrial use.

For example, the PG-derived cancrinite zeolites showed excellent CO₂ capture performance, outperforming similar frameworks produced from commercial precursors. Even more striking, the Ca-BTC MOF was able to selectively sieve water molecules from alcohol—an application with huge implications for bioethanol purification and industrial solvent recovery. This is just a tip of the iceberg, many applications still to explore.

“This water-alcohol separation ability wasn’t known for this framework,” said Prof. Belmabkhout. “And it comes from a waste-derived material and this is just a tip of the iceberg That’s the beauty of it.”

To grasp the stakes, consider this: nearly half of the world’s industrial energy is consumed in separation and transformation processes purifying chemicals, cracking hydrocarbons, and producing polymers.

“Everything surrounding you,” Belmabkhout emphasized, “is the result of separation and transformation. Just purifying olefins for plastic production consumes 1% of global energy.”

This is where porous materials come in. Zeolites and MOFs act like molecular sieves, separating compounds based on size, polarity, or affinity.

They are essential in catalysts, membranes, and adsorption-based filters. But their widespread industrial use is often blocked by the high cost of their synthesis.

“You need materials with extremely controlled architectures,” said Assen. “But the synthesis often relies on expensive precursors, harsh solvents, and energy-intensive conditions.”

Using phosphogypsum as a precursor solves several problems at once: it’s abundant, cheap, and chemically versatile. More importantly, it roots the production of high-tech materials in a circular economy logic that is both industrially pragmatic and environmentally strategic.

The ACER team’s methodology breaks new ground not only for materials science, but also for how we think about resource flows in the phosphate value chain. Traditionally, mining waste PG and other phosphate have been excluded from the innovation loop. For example PG is stored in heaps and only partially reused in agriculture or construction.

But as Belmabkhout points out, even the beneficiation step, the early-stage filtration of phosphate ore; generates multiple layers of ‘byproducts’ with unrealized value. “After beneficiation, only particles below 60 microns go to the production line.

The rest – big particles, tails, off-spec material – they stay in the mine. But they’re chemically rich.” That insight echoes the logic of frontier research in green chemistry: start from what is abundant, not what is pure. “Why not engineer Advanced materials from impurities?” Belmabkhout asked. “This is where real innovation lies.”

This philosophy also challenges conventional notions of supply chains in Africa. Rather than exporting raw materials and importing high-value components, this model builds technological sophistication directly on top of local raw inputs. In effect, it short-circuits the global dependency loop.

While the research is still at the pilot stage, its implications are industrial. The process yields phase-pure porous materials with reproducible structures, verified by XRD, FTIR, SEM-EDX, and gas adsorption measurements.

More importantly, the cost-benefit calculations are promising: based on mass balances and preliminary yield analysis, PG-to-zeolite and PG-to-MOF conversions are competitive with traditional methods.

“This work sets the foundation for scaling,” Belmabkhout said. “Not just in labs, but potentially in modular units near mining sites. We could envision integrated platforms that valorize PG on-site turning environmental liabilities into exportable technologies.”

Beyond zeolites and Ca-MOFs, the team is also investigating the production of mesoporous silicate materials (MSMs), alumina, and silica-alumina phosphate based materials using other phosphate byproducts.

In a parallel study, they synthesized four classes of MSMs from two types of phosphate mining waste, achieving lead removal capacities of over 800 mg/g on par with the best materials in the literature.

The message is clear: the old distinction between waste and product is dissolving. And the future of material science may well be rooted in the strategic reuse of what we once discarded.

In the end, what makes this work transformative isn’t just the technical performance of the materials. It’s the conceptual reframing of waste as a resource base for the 21st century.

“PG used to be an end-of-pipe problem,” said Belmabkhout. “Now it’s the beginning of a new material story.”

The stakes are high. As climate pressures mount and circular economy principles gain urgency, the demand for sustainable, low-cost, high-performance materials will only grow. Africa, with its vast reserves of underutilized resources and scientific talent, is uniquely positioned to lead. And in places like Benguerir, the alchemy of phosphate waste into functional matter is already underway.