Solvay Interox (societe Anonyme)

Solvay Interox Sa

Uwe Droste

Alun P James

Graham R Horne

Manfred Mathes

Richard Roesler

Soraya Parvaneh

Romano Pardini

Lido Signorini

Robert Owen

Stefano Bigini

Pier-Luigi Deli

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 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

Growing community of inventors

Bad Hoenningen, Germany

Uwe Droste