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A trona fact sheet from Solvay Chemicals
What is trona?
- Trona is a naturally occurring mineral that is known chemically as sodium sesquicarbonate.
- Trona is used primarily to make soda ash (which in turn is used in glass manufacturing, paper, food additives, laundry products, and medicine, to name only a few.)
- Trona's other uses are air pollution control and animal feed. It is fed to dairy cows as a rumen buffer.
What are the major markets for trona?
- Air pollution control: Trona is used by industries as varied as glass, cement, waste incineration, gold and other precious metal refining, petroleum refining, pulp & paper, and electric power generation for air pollution control.
- Trona effectively removes sulfur oxides (SOx), hydrogen sulfide (H2S), hydrochloric acid (HCl), and hydrofluoric acid (HF) from flue gas emissions.
- Animal feed: Trona is also used in animal feed, with the largest market being a rumen buffer for dairy cows. A proper feed program that includes trona actually increases milk production.
Is trona widely used?
- Trona is used for air pollution control from Alaska to Maryland, from Washington State to Florida.
- Trona is used throughout North America in animal feed
How does trona work in air pollution control? What air pollutants does trona target?
- Trona is used in dry sorbent injection systems (DSI) where it reacts with acid gases to form a safe, non-corrosive waste product that will not damage equipment.
- It removes hydrochloric acid and sodium dioxide and trioxide (SOx)
- Field-testing has shown removal rates of SOx greater than 90%.
- It has routinely achieved HCl removal of 95-99%.
When was it determined that trona could be used for air pollution control?
Solvay discovered trona's value as an air pollution control product about 20 years ago in Colorado, where it has been used effectively by a public utility power station in Denver for control of SO2 emissions ever since.
Is it approved by the EPA?
The EPA or the appropriate State Regulatory Agencies have approved trona's use as an air pollution control product.
As it is a fine powder, can the use of trona to control air pollutants by itself CAUSE air pollution?
- When used correctly in DSI systems, trona does not result in further air pollution.
- It is an effective product with safe, non-corrosive by-products.
- In many cases, the use of trona improves the discharges from a source because it enhances the performance of an ESP (electrostatic precipitator - used for particulate control)
What is dry sorbent injection (DSI)?
Dry sorbent injection is a process where a powdered substance is blown into an air duct containing acid gases. The gases react with the powder to form safe byproducts. The byproducts and any excess powder are removed from the air stream using one of several techniques. The clean air is then discharged into the atmosphere through the exhaust stack.
How else is trona used to combat air pollution besides DSI?
- Trona is also added in other processes to control pollutants. For example, in production of gold ore, trona is added to the roaster (U.S. Patent #6,270,555) to control sulfur dioxide emissions.
- Trona is added in cement kilns to control sulfur emissions.
Is trona a harmful mineral? Environmentally-friendly?
- Trona is a non-hazardous, non-flammable mineral.
- Trona has been used to clean acid gas air streams in power plants and industry for over 20 years.
- For specific information regarding the safety and environmental properties of trona, visit our website to download the trona MSDS.
Where is the Solvay Chemicals trona mine in the U.S.?
- Solvay Chemicals' trona mine is located in Green River, Wyoming.
- The largest trona deposit in the world is in the Green River Basin of Wyoming.
- It is estimated that this deposit alone could produce as much as 47 billion tons of soda ash.
- The deposit consists of thick, extensive beds of trona, and thin trona beds interbedded with salt (halite).
Who is Solvay?
- The Solvay Group is an international chemical and pharmaceutical group headquartered in Brussels, Belgium.
- The Solvay Group employs more than 30,000 people in 50 countries and recorded consolidated sales for 2005 of EUR 8.6 billion generated by its three sectors: Chemicals, Plastics and Pharmaceuticals. Solvay is listed on the Euronext 100 index of leading European companies. Details are available at www.solvay.com
Who is Solvay Chemicals?
- Solvay Chemicals, Inc., headquartered in Houston, Texas, provides essential and specialty chemicals to the North American marketplace, and is part of the Solvay Group.
- It offers a broad range of products to markets as varied as agriculture, automotive, environment, food and drink, glass, personal care, pharmaceuticals, paints and coatings, pulp & paper, semiconductor and electronics, and soap and detergent.
- Besides trona, our products include soda ash, INTEROX® Hydrogen Peroxide, BICAR™ Sodium Bicarbonate, IXPER® Calcium and Magnesium Peroxides, sodium percarbonate, polyglycerols, epichlorohydrin, precipitated calcium carbonate, CAPA® Caprolactones, organic and inorganic fluorides including NOCOLOK® Flux, and more.
- In 2005, Solvay Chemicals formed the SOLVAir™ group, with a portfolio of products designed to efficiently and cost-effectively help remove sulfur oxides, hydrogen sulfide, nitrogen oxides, hydrochloric acid, hydrofluoric acid and heavy metals such as mercury from flue gas emissions.
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