Sodium Carbonate (Soda Ash)

About This Product

Sodium carbonate has the formula Na2CO3 and CAS number 497-19-8, supplied as light or dense grades of white powder or granule. It is produced by the Solvay ammonia-soda process or mined and refined from natural trona deposits, and gives a strongly alkaline solution around pH 11. Glass is where most of it goes, and the reason is thermodynamic. Pure silica melts at around 1,700 degrees Celsius, which is impractical to sustain in a commercial furnace. Adding sodium carbonate introduces sodium oxide, which acts as a flux: it breaks bridging oxygen bonds in the silica network and brings the working temperature down to roughly 1,000 degrees, cutting fuel consumption enormously. That is the whole basis of soda-lime glass, which is essentially all window and container glass made. The dense grade is specified for glass because it resists segregation in the batch and dusts less. Elsewhere its alkalinity does the work: it softens water by precipitating calcium and magnesium as carbonates, neutralises acid effluent, and provides the alkali reserve in detergents and in flue gas scrubbing. It is used in glass manufacture, detergents and cleaners, water treatment, chemical manufacture, pulp and paper and flue gas desulphurisation. Bio Green Chem supplies light and dense soda ash to specification on assay, sodium chloride, iron, insolubles, moisture and bulk density.