[Weekly Topic] Where does the future of the soda ash industry lie?
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This post was last edited by zqwqiwu123 on 2015-4-14 at 14:28. This year, the price of ammonium chloride has continued to fall, resulting in the alkali industry operating at levels of slight losses, break-even, or slight profits. This year, ammonia-soda plants have generally fared well, but they still have to deal with the huge problem of solid pollution caused by soda residue. What is the next path for the soda ash factory?
I don’t know much about inorganic chemical products; personally, I believe that ammonium chloride produced via the ammonia-soda process should be developed into a compound fertilizer； For the solid waste from the ammonia-soda process, there really aren’t many good treatment methods available at present. The waste liquid is used for desulfurization in power plants, but the quantity used is relatively small after all. As for other applications, there are currently no very practical ones.
Previously, the Soda Ash Association stated that breakthrough progress had been made in the development of downstream products of ammonium chloride; however, so far, there’s been no sign of any developments.
Maybe it’s theoretical or a “scientific experiment”.
I’ve seen reports on the direct decomposition of ammonium chloride to recover ammonia and obtain hydrogen chloride. I wonder if there are any industrial applications of this process, or if it remains purely theoretical?
Research on the decomposition of ammonium chloride to produce hydrogen chloride and ammonia has been conducted for many years; however, there have been no reports of large-scale production.
In some factories, the owners are landlords; they have plenty of land. **They don’t care at all; they have no worries.**
In previous years and even now, there indeed was local protectionism. However, with the implementation of the new Environmental Protection Law on January 1, 2015, and the increased enforcement of environmental regulations, the future of ammonia-alkali plants will become increasingly difficult.
In any industry, equipment is trending toward being larger in size and more energy-efficient; the soda ash industry is no exception. Indeed, excellence can be found in every field.
Ammonium chloride is used only in low-end fertilizers within compound fertilizers. Our company also produces compound fertilizers, but soda ash isn’t having an easy time either! Some time ago, I heard that Yihua Shuanghuan planned to expand its ammonia-soda plant to a capacity of 400,000 tons. I wonder if this has been accomplished? Personally, I believe that in the mainland, it’s impossible to handle solid waste pollution when producing ammonia-soda!
Isn’t it the case that we’re currently working on the co-production of salt, alkali, and calcium? It’s just like what Jing Shen does.