Lecture 13 Sodium Nitrate

As a fertilizer, sodium nitrate has long been applied as a surface dressing for cotton, tobacco, and some vegetable crops. However, its use as a straight nitrogen fertilizer has declined considerably during the past century. As with other nitrate is prone to leaching in the soil, but it has the advantage of possessing a metallic cation, unlike ammonia and its derivatives, including urea, sodium nitrate will not promote cation losses in the soil and lead to unsuspected soil acidity. Industrial applications include meat preservation, heat treatment of metals and use as a flux in the ceramic and metallurgical industries. Properties of sodium nitrate: sodium nitrate is a white crystalline substance with an N content of about 16% and a sodium content of about 27%. Commercial Form: sodium nitrate is traded as crystalline, prilled or grained material. Properties of Sodium nitrate Properties Solubility g/100g of water -at 00C -at 100C -at 300C -at 1000C Bulk density kg/m3 Pellets Coarse material 1,202 73 96 176 180 Values

Fine powder Critical relation humidity, % -at 200C -at 300C

1,282

75 74

Storage and transportation: Because sodium nitrate is a toxic product, some precaution (respirator, rubber gloves and goggles) should be observed when handling it. Sodium nitrate can be stored and shipped in bulk, under conditions of low humidity, but should be packed in moisture resistant bags when intended for use in damp or tropical climates. Materials such as bags or timber, when allowed to dry after impregnation with sodium nitrate, may quickly ignite if they are exposed to elevated temperatures and should be destroyed or thoroughly washed and fireproofed. Raw materials: only nitrate ore (caliche) is needed to produce sodium nitrate of natural origin. Caliche varies widely zero nitrate content although little highgrade material is available today. Different chemicals may be used to produce synthetic sodium nitrate; ammonia, soda ash, nitric acid, caustic soda, sodium chloride and some others. Most of them are used to produce sodium nitrate in minor quantities (sometimes as a byproduct) for industrial applications. Synthetic sodium nitrate: During the early part of the 20th century, several chemical processes for manufacture of sodium nitrate were developed. All these methods produce a sodium nitrate solution that is concentrated, crystallized and centrifuged. One method is explained below: The method is based upon oxidation of ammonia in the presence of platinum catalyst at atmospheric pressure, absorption of the nitrogen oxides produced by water solution of sodium carbonate, and separation of sodium nitrate and sodium nitrite. The nitrous gas after the burner is cooled in a wasteheat boiler 2100-2700C and fed to the first absorber where nitrogen oxides are cooled further and partially absorbed by a water solution of sodium carbonate. Two reaction can take place.

Na 2 CO3 NO NO2 2NaNo 2 CO2 Na 2 CO3 2NO 2 NaNO2 NaNo 2 CO2

The solution leaving the absorber is fed to the crystallization section. The gas form the absorber is washed, compressed to about 0.4MPa and send to the second absorber where the remaining nitrogen oxides are absorbed under pressure in a countercurrent stream of fresh sodium carbonate solution. The tail gas from the second absorber is treated in a SCR NOx abatement unit before is added to the circulating solution of the first absorber. In the crystallization section the solution from the first absorber is filtered and evaporated. Crystalline sodium nitrate is separated from the solution in the primary centrifuge, dried in a rotary drum and send to storage. The mother liquor from primary centrifuge is further evaporated and centrifuged. The mother liquor from the secondary centrifuge is fed to a column reacter where the liquor is treated with nitric acid to cover NaNO2 to NaNO3.

3NaNO2 2HNO3 3NaNO3 2No H 2 O

Sodium nitrate is separated from the solution and dried in a rotary dryer.