Glass Industry:
When mined and processed, soda ash can vary in density, size, and shape. This flexibility allows it to be used in a variety of everyday products—like glass.
It is used as the main ingredient because soda ash naturally reduces melting temperatures and its alkali effectively supports the shaping of the glass item. Sand is also used as the glass forming oxide while lime is used to provide chemical stability.
Soda ash related CO2 emissions. As a result, glass manufacturing accounts for over 50% of the total soda ash production.
Specifically, soda ash is used to make the most common type of glass, soda-lime silica glass.
The glass industry comprises of five mains sectors, which are flat glass, container glass, continuous filament glass, domestic glass, and special glass.
Furthermore, the flat glass industry mainly produces glass used in the automotive industry (tempered glass), as well as in the building sector: private and public housing, after-market segment (windows and doors replacement).
container and flat glass. Container glass holds food, beverages and other concoctions and is 100% recyclable, unlike its plastic counterparts that remain one of the biggest environmental concerns.
Flat glass is found in solar panels, and the automotive and construction industries, of which the latter is the largest consumer of glass – construction, for example, represents 20% of Solvay’s total soda ash sales.
Many of these end products positively serve the environment. In construction, double glazing drives tremendous energy savings – millions of tons of CO2 emissions can be cut simply by installing proper windows.
There’s no doubt that soda ash is a key ingredient in a wide variety of sustainable solutions. And today we are taking the lead to overhaul its carbon-intensive manufacturing process.
The inventive properties of packaging glass, for instance, dark brown containers for beers and green tint color glass for wine bottles, together with its full recycling capability and its inability to react with the content makes glass a highly valued raw material.
Thus, the use of soda ash in making glass has helped the chemical soda ash industry to register good growth yearly.
