Sodium is a component of NaCL which is very vital for life.
It is used in some of the alloys to improve their structure. Nak is an alloy of sodium and potassium, one of the most important thermal transfer materials.
Sodium, in its metallic form, is an essential ingredient for the manufacture of esters and the production of organic composites, which are used for making soap (in combination with fatty acids), scourers, refining of molten metals, batteries, glass and for cooling nuclear reactors, chemical industry, agriculture, pharmacy, metal, oil, textile, photography, and medicine.
Sodium Carbonate:
Glass:
۴۵ % of global Sodium Carbonate production is used in the glass industry. The use of alkaline materials such as Na2co3 in glass making reduces the temperature of the glass from 1700 to 1500 to 1400 o C, which, on the other hand, saves energy and increases the lifetime of the refractory. Adding feldspar or nepheline sintete, etc. reduces this temperature and produces water-soluble glass that adds CaO to stabilize it.
Sodium Carbonate accounts for less than 20% of the total volume of limestone-soda type glass, but accounts for 60 % of the cost (flat glass, window glass, glassware).
Other types of glass can use less Sodium Carbonate because they require less amount of soda. They include borosilicate glass, pirax, flat glass dishes, fiber glasses, lab supplies, monitor and TV glass, etc.
Other Uses:
Soda is used in the processes that require alkali such as paper making (5 %), soap and detergents (5 %), silicate glue (20 %), aluminum refining, and other non-ferrous metals, smoke desulfurization, metallurgy, reducing water hardness and water purification. The amount of Sodium Carbonate in domestic and industrial detergents is 10 % to 40 %.
Other uses like the preparation of NaOH, zeolite, the chemical materials production precursor (10 %) can also be named.
Sodium Silicate:
Soaps, detergents, silicate catalysts, silica gel and synthetic silica, NaOH soda, paper and paperboard, soaps and detergents, textile.
Sodium Bicarbonates:
Animal food, chemicals, pharmacy, cleaners, fabric,
Different centers for sodium sulfate in Iran and the world:
The following table shows the alternative materials of sodium sulfate in the consumer industry.
