Sodium salts - Sodium Carbonate and Sodium Bicarbonate

Natural Soda Ash has been found in lake brines or naturally occurring mineral deposits. Trona (a mix of water, sodium bicarbonate, sodium carbonate and sometimes sodium chloride or salt) is the most common and richest source of naturally occurring Soda Ash. While Trona occurs naturally in a few locations worldwide, the largest and purest deposits are found near Green River, Wyoming, USA and near Ankara, Turkey. To date, these are the only commercially exploitable deposits that have been discovered globally.

Sodium Carbonate - Soda Ash is a simple, natural product used in products worldwide. Soda Ash is the 10^th most consumed inorganic compound in the world, which has been used for over 5,000 years. It is a safe, simple compound and a key component in a variety of industrial processes. Over half of all Soda Ash production is used in glass manufacturing, but it is also used in a wide range of other products, such as powdered detergents and soaps and rechargeable batteries, as well as being used extensively in metallurgical processes, and across the food, cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries.

Like Soda Ash, Sodium Bicarbonate is a safe inorganic compound that is chemically closely related to Soda Ash. The main uses of Sodium Bicarbonate are as a raising agent in food manufacture, as an ingredient in pharmaceutical healthcare and animal feed products, and in wastewater treatment. More recently, Sodium Bicarbonate is increasingly being used in new environmental applications, including the desulphurisation or “scrubbing” of flue gas emissions, particularly in the shipping industry. Sodium Bicarbonate also known as sodium hydrogen carbonate is a chemical substance white in colour and its aqueous solution is clear and colourless.

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