Soda ash and its importance to the US market

• Autores: Chris Greissing, Industrial Minerals
• Localización: Industrial Minerals, ISSN 0019-8544, Nº. 564, 2014 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Septiembre)
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • The US soda ash industry has continued to see tremendous growth across the globe and currently supplies approximately one-fifth of the global demand for soda ash. It is this increase in global demand that leaves US producers confident that they will continue to see growth. In fact, global demand for US soda ash is projected to grow at a rate of 4-5% over the next five years, according to Industrial Minerals Association North America (IMA-NA) estimates.

    While the US industry is fortunate to have two of the best natural soda ash deposits in the world, the Chinese produce their soda ash synthetically. Of all the soda ash produced worldwide, IMA-NA figures state that only 25% is produced naturally, and of that 25%, more than 90% of production comes from the five US companies.

    According to IMA-NA estimates, synthetic soda ash is almost twice as energy intensive as naturally produced soda ash. Synthetic soda ash production also results in significantly greater greenhouse gas emissions than natural soda ash production.