Abstract
Potash is one of the most important basic materials in variety of industries, from Soap production to manufacturing Glasses. As Potash is an ash-derived alkali and is effectively extracted from ashes of different woods and together with the fact that the demand for such products is increasing everyday caused a concern about number of chopped trees worldwide. This report represents an overview and review on the production of Potash and different aspects of this industry. First, Potash composition and formulation process is discussed. Next, this production procedure and technical challenges of such procedures are reviewed and finally one of most recent method of evaluations is reviewed.
Contents
1. Introduction 4 2. Composition and Formulation 5 3. Manufacturing process and Technical Challenges 6 4. Product evaluation 8 5. Conclusion 9 7. References 10
1. Introduction
“Potash” is the name which refers to a class of minerals that have origin of potassium compounds and are considered as one of the crucial basic materials in industry. Wide range applications of Potash in production of Soap, Glasses, Food industry and Gas Purifications has made the mass production of these materials to play an important role in industry. The term ash-derived alkali is used for productions with soluble base such as hydroxide or carbonated of potassium and sodium. (Babayemi, et al., 2011) . Some of most important applications of potash can be considered as following and is represented in Table 1.
Glass industry | Chemicals | Dyes Pigments | Food | Cleaners | Gas Purification | Others | Source of K2O for alkali barium silica glasses. | Organic Chemicals | Inks | Chocolate ”alkalizing” or “Dutch” processing of coca powder | Washing | Removal of carbon dioxide and other acid gases by absorption in a solution of potassium carbonate together with following materials:-Natural Gas-Synthetic hydrogen-petrochemical products-dry ice-chemicals from hydrocarbon gas | Tanning leather | | Potassium salt of phosphates | Dry Colours | Effervescent mineral water | Bleaching | | Perfume and toilet articles | | Oxalic acid | Dyeing Textiles | Special leavening agents | Boiler Compounds | | Refrigeration | | Dehydrating agents | Printing Fabrics | Brewing Beer | Liquid soaps | | Flame proofing | | Corrosion inhibitor | | Raisin Drying | Metal cleaners | | Photography | | Fertilizers | | Alfalfa drying | | | Electroplating | | Catalysts | | Cattle feed additive | | | Molten salts | | Drugs | | Oriental noodles | | | Rubber additives | | Gums | | | | | | | Adhesives | | | | | | | Rocket Fuels | | | | | |
Table [ 1 ]- Applications of Potash in different fields of industry (Company, 2008)
Traditionally, alkali was produced by wood ashes (Babayemi, et al., 2011). The huge increase in demand of the potash productions caused growth in number of chopped trees. This fact was treating the environment conditions around the world and in particular world (Wiley-VCH, et al., 2007). For instance Sweden established manufacturing Potash in early 19th century and continued rapidly in next few decades until 1860s when manufacturing Potash was stopped due to shortage of trees as raw materials (L. ÖSTLUND, 1998). These concerns were mostly raised in 18th century and inspired the scientists to invent new methods for extracting the potash with higher efficiency and lower harms to earth environment.
In this report first, a background on Composition and Formulation of Potash is represented which is followed by manufacturing process of this material. Next, some of the technical challenges during this process are discussed. Moreover, the evaluation methodology on how to ensure the product meets the required standards is reviewed. Finally, Conclusions of this report are presented.
2. Composition and Formulation
The content of the alkali composition is either potassium carbonate or sodium
