Solvay Chemicals’ Green River, Wyoming plant began producing soda ash in 1982; its original plant capacity was one million tons per year. Since then, capacity has increased and now exceeds 2.5MM tons of soda ash per year.

Soda ash is produced from trona ore in a series of refining steps. First, the raw ore from the mine is crushed and screened. The material is then fed to rotary calciners, and heated. During this process, the trona decomposes to form crude soda ash, which is dissolved in water. The insoluble shales are separated from the solution by a combination of settling and filtration steps, and the resulting insoluble tailings are taken back into the mine as backfill. Then the soda ash solution is treated to remove organic materials yielding a high-purity saturated solution of sodium carbonate.

Next, the solution is fed to the crystallizers where water is evaporated and sodium carbonate monohydrate crystals are formed. The industry-familiar term "mono-process" originates from this process step. The crystals are dewatered and washed using cyclones and centrifuges, and the solution is recycled to the evaporator units for further recovery of soda ash. The monohydrate crystals are fed to dryers (steam-heated in the original plant and gas-fired in the expanded plant) where they are dried to the finished product of soda ash. Finally, product is screened and sent to storage silos awaiting rail and truck loadout.

Soda ash has a number of diversified uses. Glass manufacturing is the largest application for soda ash, whether it is in the production of containers, fiberglass insulation, or flat glass for the housing, commercial building, and automotive industries. Soda ash is also used to clean the air and soften water.  Chemical producers use soda ash as an intermediate to manufacture products that sweeten soft drinks (corn sweeteners), relieve physical discomfort (sodium bicarbonate) and improve foods and toiletries (phosphates). Household detergents and paper products are a few other common examples of readily identifiable products using soda ash.

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