Description

Caustic Soda is also known as sodium hydroxide (NaOH). It is an important industrial chemical product produced in both liquid & solid form. It is deliquescent, absorbing water vapour and carbon dioxide from the air.

Caustic soda (sodium hydroxide) is produced while producing chlorine during the electrolysis of sodium chloride.

Caustic soda or sodium hydroxide (NaOH), is a white crystalline solid substance which usage cuts across virtually all the sectors of the economy chemical, textile, pharmaceutical, oil and gas.

Since it is a strong alkaline which can easily dissolve with water, it is used as a cleaning agent for many household and industrial purposes. It can easily absorb gases like carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide; hence it can be used in the treatment of heavy metals, extraction of ores, in refining oil and in many other processes and uses.

The physical form of sodium hydroxide can be in the form of pellets, wafers, solids or even liquid solutions. Purity ranges from thirty-two percent (32%) sodium oxide (Na2O) to ninety-nine percent (99%) sodium oxide (Na2O) and it is highly corrosive to skin.

Caustic soda is used in the aluminum industry, pulp & paper. They are used as water treatment and water purification, as cleaning agent, or a wide range of uses in chemical industry like the starch production and for dyeing clothes, and what have you.

The product is highly consumed in the production of household products such as detergents, soaps, and cleaning products. Therefore, population growth, urbanization, rising household income, and improving economy have a positive impact on the overall caustic soda market demand.

Rising demand for alumina in automobile industry especially in Asia Pacific is considered to stimulate the market growth.

The global caustic soda market size was estimated at $30.27 billion in 2019 and is predicted to exceed $32.06 billion by 2026, recording a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of three point six percent (3.6%) from 2020 to 2026.
Fluctuating prices due to high energy consumption and uneven production rates is likely to limit the market growth.

In Nigeria, the Raw Materials Research and Development Council(RMRDC) disclosed that in the last five years, the country (Nigeria) imported caustic soda valued at more than thirteen billion (₦ 13,000,000,000) for use by manufacturing firms, oil and gas sectors of the economy.

Chlorine gas is well known for its use in sterilizing drinking water and in particular swimming pool water. However, most chlorine is used in the chemical industry in the manufacture of other products.
Hydrochloric acid is a colorless inorganic chemical system with the formula H2O:HCl. Hydrochloric acid has a distinctive pungent smell.

It is mainly produced as a precursor to vinyl chloride for polyvinyl chloride (PVC). It is classified as strongly acidic and can attack the skin over a wide composition range, since the hydrogen chloride practically dissociates completely in solution.

Global hydrochloric acid market is poised to witness growth over the forecast period owing to increasing demand from application industries such as water treatment, food processing and oil & gas. In addition, growing hydrochloric (HCL) use in steel and pharmaceutical industry is expected to drive the hydrochloric (HCL) acid market over the next six (6) years.

The project had been envisaged based on availability of Brine (salt) in Nigeria. Brine springs and lake spreads are possible sources of crude salt in Nigeria.

The concentration of salt in these springs has been estimated at fifteen (15) to thirty (30) parts per thousand. The saline springs occur within the narrow belt which extends in a North-North East – South- South West direction from Gombe to Afikpo, along the plains of the Benue and Cross River drainage systems. The brines issue from clays, shale, silty and arkosic sandstone, and conglomerates of upper cretaceous age.

Nigeria has an estimated reserve of about one point five billion (1,500,000,000) tons of salt brine.Caustic soda is produced together with chlorine from the electrolysis of salt brine.

This report highlights the financial viability or otherwise of establishing a caustic soda (sodium hydroxide) plant in Nigeria and producing ninety-eight to ninety-nine percent (98- 99 %) grade of caustic soda (sodium hydroxide) flakes and liquid chlorine as bye-product.

The production capacity of the proposed plant is five (5) tons per day and would operate at eighty (80%) of the installed capacity working three (3) shifts of eight (8) hours each in three hundred (300) days per annum producing two hundred (200) tons of caustic soda flakes and one thousand six hundred (1,600) tons of liquid chlorine bi-monthly.