Process 3: Monohydrate Process

This section details the systematic route on the production of sodium carbonate from trona ore as the
feedstock. A process narrative is presented including the data acquired from various literatures available
followed by the process flow diagram.
Process Narrative
In the production of soda ash using monohydrate process, trona ore having a composition of 90.51%
Na3(CO3)(HCO3).2H2O, 2% shortite, 6.56% insoluble impurities, 0.36% 2(NaCl), 0.1% Na 2SO4, and 0.47%
dolomite (Patent No. US 3656892, 1972) is crushed by a cone crusher to reduce the size of ore and
screened with a 3 mm vibratory screen. The undersize is fed to a rotary calciner and heated at 250oC in
order to convert the sodium bicarbonate to sodium carbonate while the oversize is sent back to the crusher
(Ullmann, 2000).
Inside the rotary calciner, the thermal decomposition of trona has the reaction:
2Na2CO3.NaHCO3.2H2O (trona) + heat

3Na2CO3 + CO2 + 5H2O (Kogel & Trivedi, 2006)

The flue gases that had been produced by the combustion of trona ore will enter a plate and frame
heat exchanger before sending to carbon dioxide treatment while the products of the calciner is mixed with
hot water at 65oC to dissolve Na2CO3 and other soluble impurities, separating it from the insoluble
impurities.
The resulting solution will then be sent to a clarifier to separate the insoluble impurities from the
remaining soluble impurities. The underflow from this thickener will be disposed while the overflow
containing most of the soluble impurities and some insoluble ones will be sent to a pressure filter for
complete removal of insoluble impurities. The filtrate from the filter will pass through an evaporative
crystallizer yielding a 30% slurry of Na 2CO3.H2O. This slurry is to be concentrated to 60% solids in a
hydrocyclone then sent to a centrifuge to separate the liquor from the crystals. The centrifuged
monohydrate crystals which still contain about 3% of moisture is to be dried in the dryer at 150 oC to
produce an anhydrous soda ash. The anhydrous soda ash will be sent to a planetary ball mill where the
product size will be less than 1 micrometer. Other particles having greater than 1 micrometer will be
screened and then sent back to the mill(Ullmann, 2000).