Solvay Interox Gmbh

Solvay Interox (societe Anonyme)

Solvay Interox Sa

Pier-Luigi Deli

Alun P James

Graham R Horne

Richard Roesler

Soraya Parvaneh

Romano Pardini

Manfred Mathes

Lido Signorini

Robert Owen

Stefano Bigini

Uwe Droste

Sodium percarbonate is traditionally made in a crystallization process from aqueous hydrogen peroxide and sodium carbonate with recycle of mother liquor in the presence of a substantial concentration of a salting out agent, conventionally sodium chloride. The invention provides a process intended to be conducted without addition of chloride salting-out agent in which the dissolution step is controlled to restrict the sodium carbonate concentration to below 95%, preferably 60 to 90% of its saturated concentration at a temperature preferably controlled to at most 35C. and the mole ratio of hydrogen peroxide:sodium carbonate in the reaction vessel is controlled to between 0.7 to 1.2:1, and preferably about 1:1. In some embodiments at least a fraction of the mother liquor introduced into the dissolution tank is obtained by extraction from the reaction vessel and in other embodiments a fraction of the sodium percarbonate is introduced in solution in the mother liquor and a fraction is introduced in particulate form directly into the reaction vessel. Large particle sodium percarbonate is provided which has a 7 day aged heat emission at 40C. of not more than 3 &mgr;W/g measured in a microcalorimeter over 16 hours that is lower than the heat emission from conventionally produced sodium percarbonate employing a chloride salting-out agent.

Sodium percarbonate and process for producing sodium percarbonate

Sodium percarbonate exhibits a tendency to decompose in built compositions and particularly detergent compositions built with zeolites. The tendency can be ameliorated by selecting sodium percarbonate which intrinsically has a mean particle size of from 500 to 1000 microns and not more than 20% by weight of below 350 microns and has a moisture pick-up when measured in a test at 80% relative humidity and 32&deg; C. after 24 hours of not greater than 30 g/1000 g sample. A suitable sodium percarbonate can be made most conveniently by crystallisation from a bulk saturated solution of sodium percarbonate in a crystalliser/classifier that does not employ a conventional chloride salting-out agent.

Compositions containing sodium percarbonate

Sodium percarbonate is traditionally made in a crystallization process from aqueous hydrogen peroxide and sodium carbonate with recycle of mother liquor in the presence of a substantial concentration of a salting-out agent, conventionally sodium chloride. The invention provides a process intended to be conducted without addition of chloride salting-out agent in which the dissolution step (,) is controlled to restrict the sodium carbonate concentration to below 95%; preferably 60 to 90% of its saturated concentration at a temperature preferably controlled to at most 35&deg; C. and the mole ratio of hydrogen peroxide: sodium carbonate in the reaction vessel is controlled to between 0.7 to 1.2:1, and preferably about 1:1. In some embodiments at least a fraction of the mother liquor introduced into the dissolution tank (,) is obtained by extraction from the reaction vessel (,) and in other embodiments a fraction of the sodium percarbonate (,) is introduced in solution in the mother liquor (,) and a fraction is introduced in particulate form (,) directly into the reaction vessel (,). Large particle sodium percarbonate is provided which has a 7 day aged heat emission at 40&deg; C. of not more than 3 &mgr;W/g measured in a microcalorimeter over 16 hours that is lower than the heat emission from conventionally produced sodium percarbonate employing a chloride salting-out agent.

Process for producing sodium percarbonate

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Ne/Genova, Italy

Pier-Luigi Deli