How is Soda Ash Produced?

  Soda ash, as an inorganic compound with a profound impact in the global industrial and daily life fields, ranks among the top ten in terms of consumption scale worldwide. It has an application history of over 5,000 years and bears the profound memory of the changes in human production and living styles. Soda ash is a compound with high safety and a relatively simple chemical structure. It plays an indispensable and core role in numerous key industrial processes such as glass manufacturing, dry powder detergent preparation, and lithium-ion battery production, and is a fundamental element driving the continuous development of these industries. Meanwhile, in fields related to people's livelihood and health such as food processing and pharmaceuticals, soda ash also plays a vital role and is deeply embedded in various fine production links. This substance, which is easily overlooked by the public in daily life but widely permeates every corner, is sodium carbonate, accurately represented by the chemical symbol Na₂CO₃.

  Tracing back to the origin of history, the ancient Egyptians demonstrated outstanding pioneering thinking. They either extracted soda ash from dried desert lake beds or burned marine plants rich in sodium elements to collect ashes, thus giving rise to the common name "soda ash". At that time, they skillfully used soda ash to lower the melting point of silica sand and successfully created glassware and exquisite ornaments. What's astonishing is that this ancient technique is in line with modern glass manufacturing processes in principle, demonstrating the powerful vitality of the inheritance of human wisdom. Meanwhile, the Romans also actively expanded its application boundaries and widely applied sodium bicarbonate in the fields of medical treatment and bread baking, injecting vitality into the social progress at that time.

During the long historical evolution, the production mode of soda ash remained unchanged for a long time with few changes. It was not until the middle of the 19th century that with the surging wave of industrialization and the explosive growth of market demand, the traditional production methods were stretched to the limit, and the synthetic production technology of soda ash emerged as the times required, opening a brand-new chapter for the large-scale industrial production of soda ash.

  So, how is soda ash prepared exactly? Up to now, the industrial production of soda ash (sodium carbonate) mainly relies on two mainstream methods, and the soda ash products produced through these two approaches are almost identical in their chemical essential characteristics and can meet the strict quality standards of various industries.

  The first is the production of natural soda ash: The industrial preparation process of natural soda ash starts with the mining of natural soda ore, followed by a series of fine process links such as filtration, concentration, crystallization, and drying. These processes have a moderate technical difficulty and a relatively simple operation process. Through this series of processing steps, the original natural soda ore can be transformed into high-quality soda ash products that meet the market circulation standards. Currently, from the perspective of the global soda ash industry layout, the output contributed by the natural soda ash production method accounts for about 30%. From a professional geological perspective, the globally commercially exploitable natural soda deposits are extremely concentrated, mainly focusing on three specific regions: First, the giant deposit in Wyoming, the United States, with a spectacular reserve scale; second, the large deposit in Turkey, which lays a solid foundation for the local soda ash industry to take off; and third, the deposit with considerable reserves in Inner Mongolia, China, which contains huge development potential. In the past, in the global industrial production map of natural soda ash, only Wyoming in the United States and Turkey had mature large-scale production capabilities and continuously and stably supplied products to the market.

  The second is the production of synthetic soda ash: Synthetic soda ash realizes large-scale mass production relying on precise chemical production processes. Among them, the representative process methods are the Solvay process and the Hou's process. Its core principle lies in promoting complex chemical reactions among salt (sodium chloride), limestone (calcium carbonate), and coking coal under the catalytic action of ammonia. By precisely controlling the reaction conditions, synthetic soda ash is finally successfully produced. Currently, in the composition of the global total soda ash output, synthetic soda ash occupies about 70% of the share due to its wide application adaptability. However, it should be emphasized that compared with the natural soda ash production method, the synthetic soda ash production process faces numerous challenges. Not only are the upfront construction and operation costs high, but also it is outstanding in terms of energy consumption and water resource occupation, putting great pressure on the environmental and resource carrying capacities.

  After a painstaking construction process lasting four years, China has successfully built a ten-million-ton-level natural soda ash production base in Alxa, Inner Mongolia. This significant achievement will open a new page for China's soda ash industry and create a brand-new development pattern. It marks that China's soda ash industry, which has gone through a hundred years of vicissitudes and has long been dominated by chemical synthesis methods (ammonia-alkali process and combined alkali process), has already achieved a smooth transformation and upgrading and is striding forward towards a green, efficient, and sustainable direction.