The American Chemical Society Recognizes Novaphos With the 2025 Green Chemistry Challenge Award

Annual Award Showcases the Deep Impact of Novaphos’ Innovative Phosphogypsum Reprocessing Technology

[Fort Meade, Florida – September 3, 2025] The American Chemical Society Green Chemistry Institute® joined together with the chemical community today at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC, to award Novaphos the 2025 Green Chemistry Challenge Award for Small Business for its development of a new low-waste, low-cost method to reprocess the enormous quantities of hazardous phosphogypsum that are generated by the phosphate industry, converting this large waste stream into useful and valuable products. Circular reuse of phosphogypsum will make the phosphate industry more cost competitive and eliminate a waste disposal burden that has been a major cause of the decline of the US phosphate industry and dangerous import dependency.

Since the inception of the awards more than a quarter century ago in collaboration with the US Environmental Protection Agency, the ACS Green Chemistry Challenge Awards promote the environmental and economic benefits of developing and using novel chemistry. The annual awards recognize chemical technologies and innovations that incorporate the principles of green chemistry into chemical design, manufacture, and use. The American Chemical Society Green Chemistry Institute® sponsors the Green Chemistry Challenge Awards in partnership with other members of the chemical community and have awarded dozens of innovators, researchers and institutions that decrease hazardous chemicals and resources, reduce costs and protect public health.

Through an investment that has stretched over many years, embodying a series of patents and proprietary technological innovations, Novaphos has developed a revolutionary process for reprocessing phosphogypsum, bringing improved economics and sustainability to the production of phosphoric acid, one of the most essential resources on the planet and a vital ingredient in manufacturing fertilizers, lithium-ion batteries, and many other essential products.

Novaphos Chairman Farouk Chaouni stated, “Responsible handling of phosphogypsym waste has been a challenge for the whole phosphate industry for many decades. The phosphate industry has lacked a viable alternative until now, but Novaphos technologies are finally changing that, and we are very pleased to have earned this recognition from the American Chemical Society.”

“The US phosphate industry generates about 30 million tons of phosphogypsum each year, all of which gets added to massive landfills,” added Novaphos Chief Executive Officer Timothy Cotton. “There are about 1 billion tons of gypsum stacked in Florida alone, and some of these stacks have been the sources of significant environmental disasters. But phosphogypsum is not just an environmental problem, it is a waste of raw materials. Phosphoric acid producers buy millions of tons of sulfur each year, yet that sulfur—most of which comes from the oil and gas sector—is just thrown away along with the phosphogypsum. Our technology was developed to tackle this problem and provide a better way. We can reprocess phosphogypsum to recover almost all the sulfur for reuse, which brings circularity to the phosphate industry for the first time. The process also produces solid calcium silicates, a safe and valuable material used in concrete as a substitute for cement. So, for each ton of phosphogypsum we reprocess, we are making two useful and important products. This will have significant economic benefits.”

“This award reflects the hard work, creativity and thoughtfulness of the Novaphos technical team,” stated Novaphos President, Andrew “Woody” Lewis. “Dave Blake and Mark Vignovic have led this effort over many years and should be personally proud of this achievement. We look forward to broad adoption of this technology across the global phosphate sector. That adoption will help improve food and energy security by making domestic phosphate production less vulnerable and less costly.”

Phosphates are essential products, used in fertilizers, animal feeds and many industrial products, including demanding applications like LFP battery cathodes. Like many critical materials, phosphate production in the US has declined and moved offshore, and production of phosphoric acid for LFP batteries is now highly concentrated in China. This decline in US production is creating dangerous vulnerabilities for food and energy security. Novaphos can drive a resurgence in U.S. phosphate production by using innovation and sustainability to make better use of the natural resources we do have while staying economically competitive. Reusing wastes will be a key part of this strategy.

Consistent with its focus on using sustainable manufacturing innovations to achieve secure, cost-effective supplies of phosphates, Novaphos recently joined the DARPA-backed Critical Minerals Forum and the Sustainable Phosphorus Alliance.

Novaphos is advancing its phosphogypsum reprocessing technology through multiple efforts, including engineering for commercial deployment. In the US, commercial use will require US EPA approval, and Novaphos has started this process.

ABOUT NOVAPHOS

Novaphos Inc. is changing how the world makes phosphate, modernizing production in ways not seen for decades. Novaphos proprietary and patented processes are low-waste, low-cost, proven, and highly scalable: safer for the environment and better for business. We have two core technologies to change how phosphoric acid is made. Our phosphate process enables production of high-quality phosphoric acid from low-quality phosphate rock, even mine tailings, to make high-quality phosphoric acid. Our phosphogypsum reprocessing technology allows existing phosphoric acid producers to recover and reuse sulfur from this large-volume and problematic waste. Both processes produce a useful calcium silicate construction aggregate instead of phosphogypsum. Novaphos technologies are enabling secure, and more cost-effective and sustainable supplies of the phosphoric acid we need for agriculture, LFP batteries

For more information, go to www.novaphos.com.

ABOUT THE AMERICAN CHEMISTRY SOCIETY AND THE GREEN CHEMISTRY

The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a non-profit organization founded in 1876 and chartered by the U.S. Congress. ACS is committed to improving all lives through the transforming power of chemistry. Our mission is to advance scientific knowledge, empower a global community, and champion scientific integrity. Our vision is a world built on science. One of the goals of the ACS Green Chemistry Institute® is to recognize and support outstanding contributions in green chemistry in an effort to increase implementation of green chemistry technologies.

CHALLENGE

For more information, go to www.acs.org/funding/green-chemistry.html.

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Contact: Lera Grandio at lgrandio@novaphos.com or info@novaphos.com.