Method for sodium carbonate compound recovery and formation of ammonium sulfate

Abstract

There is disclosed a process for recovering sodium bicarbonate and forming ammonium sulfate from a source containing sodium sulfate. The method involves contacting the sodium sulfate in solution with carbon dioxide and a compound containing ammonia. Sodium bicarbonate is precipitated in high purity from the solution. It is important to maintain the temperature of the source solution at or above 32.degree. C. This provision eliminates contamination of hydrates or ammonium bicarbonate components. The filtrate of the sodium bicarbonate reaction can be further processed to yield an ammonium sulfate product in the concentrated liquid or precipitated form in high purity. The basic process can be expanded to be combined with a conventional Claus process for sulphur recovery as a Tail Gas Unit, combined with lime injection to result in gypsum precipitation or can be further employed in a wet scrubbing process for FGD schemes.

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