Potassium hydroxide is also known as caustic potash and caustic soda. Its chemical formula is KOH. The pure product is white rhombic crystal. The industrial product is white powder or flake solid. Potassium hydroxide has strong caustic corrosiveness. Its properties are similar to caustic soda. When exposed to air, it is easy to deliquesce with moisture in the air, or absorb carbon dioxide in the air to generate potassium carbonate.

　　氫氧化鉀的用途廣泛，其中包括在醫(yī)藥工業(yè)、輕工業(yè)、染料工業(yè)、電化學工業(yè)、冶金和皮革等。生成氫氧化鉀的主要原料是氯化鉀和電力，而我國是氯化鉀資源貧乏之一，所以每年需要從國外引進大量的氯化鉀進行生產(chǎn)。在我國進口氯化鉀中，氫氧化鉀生產(chǎn)占用量約25-30萬噸，占全部進口量的二十分之一，受種種因素約束，氫氧化鉀生產(chǎn)廠所購的氯化鉀大都是轉(zhuǎn)手貨源，所以廠價較高，導致我國氫氧化鉀產(chǎn)品成本較高。

　　Potassium hydroxide is widely used in medicine industry, light industry, dyestuff industry, electrochemistry industry, metallurgy and leather industry. The main raw materials for producing potassium hydroxide are potassium chloride and electric power, and China is one of the countries with poor potassium chloride resources, so it is necessary to introduce a large number of potassium chloride from abroad for production every year. Among the imported potassium chloride in China, the production of potassium hydroxide accounts for about 250000-300000 tons, accounting for one twentieth of the total import. Restricted by various factors, most of the potassium chloride purchased by the potassium hydroxide production plant is the source of transfer goods, so the factory price is high, which leads to the high cost of potassium hydroxide products in China.

　　據(jù)不完全統(tǒng)計，我國氫氧化鉀產(chǎn)地主要分布在山東、浙江、江蘇、湖北等地，其它個別地區(qū)也有氫氧化鉀廠家生產(chǎn)，當相對來說不如以上地區(qū)的分布集中。

　　According to incomplete statistics, China's potassium hydroxide production areas are mainly distributed in Shandong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Hubei and other places, and other individual areas also have potassium hydroxide manufacturers, which is relatively less concentrated than the distribution of the above areas.