Chemicals
Anhydrous Caustic Soda
This product looks like irregular white scales or pearl-like little balls. It is highly deliquescent (it absorbs air moisture and dissolves in it) and has a minimum concentration of sodium hydroxide of 98% in weight, according to the specifications. In Cubatão Plant, it is manufactured as scales and in Bahía Banca Plant, Argentina, it is manufactured as pearls.
In Brazil and Argentina, this product is sold in 25 kg polyethylene sacks, in pallets or in big bags (in Argentina).
Sodium hydroxide is a strong base, popularly used to increase a mixture’s alkalinity or to neutralize acids.
In its anhydrous form, it can be found in two formats: scales or pearls.
Manufacture Process: Cubatão and Bahía Blanca Plants
Anhydrous Caustic Soda derives from Liquid Caustic Soda evaporation process, anhydrous product melting and inlaying process (Soda Flakes). Pearl-like Soda manufacture process is very similar, except for the final step.
Instead of being inlayed, melted soda goes through a completed drilled plate and small liquid spheres are formed, which fall in the tower due to gravity. During the fall, these drops crystalize when they cool down against the current of ambient air in the form of pearls.
Technical information - Physicochemical Features
Chemical formula
NaOH
Molecular weight
40.00
Melting point
318 ºC
Solubility in wate (20 ºC)
109g/ 100g of water
It is neither flammable nor combustible
Cor
Flaked Caustic Soda
White scales
Pearls Caustic Soda
White pearls
Boiling point
1390 ºC
Specific weight (20 ºC / 20 ºC)
2,13 g/cm³
Applications
It is used in soap and detergents manufacture, ferrous metal surfaces treatment, electrodeposition bath formulation, textiles mercerization, ion-exchange resins regeneration and pH correction in several industrial processes, as food, alcohol and pharmaceutical products.
