Ceramic – Glass
Raw materials for Glass Manufacturing:
Solvay’s Process – Sodium bicarbonate Formation :
Precipitation: As mentioned in the ammonia absorption step this is a closed loop process. The purified brine is allowed to react with the waste gas ammonia to form the ammoniacal brine. This ammoniacal brine is then allowed to react with excess carbon dioxide and this reaction results in the formation of Sodium bicarbonate. The formed sodium bicarbonate is precipitated as crystals by addition of water. This carbonation process is carried out in carbonator towers. The addition of CO2 with ammoniacal brine will release ammonia gas. Thus the ammonia gas formed in the carbonation towers are cooled and recycled back to the system. This ensures that there is no ammonia gas outlet to environment and also is used for reacting with purified brine to form the ammoniacal brine.
Calcination: The precipitated sodium bicarbonate crystals are then heated (calcined) to a temperature of about 160 to 230oC. The calcination of sodium bicarbonate cake will produce light soda ash and will release gases like CO2, NH3 and H2O.
To be Contd…..
