Abstract
AbstractMore than 85% of worldwide sodium nitrate production is supplied from natural deposits in Chile, South America; the rest is provided essentially as a by‐product from nitric acid plants. Sodium nitrate is used as a fertilizer and in a number of industrial applications, primarily as an oxidizing agent. These latter include the manufacture of glass, explosives, and charcoal briquettes, and the production of potassium compounds. Consumption of sodium nitrate for industrial uses has been rather steady, but production for use as fertilizer has declined. Various technical and industrial grades are available, in addition to the agricultural grade. Surface mining methods are used to mine the Chilean nitrate ore. Mineral recovery and processing procedures are described, as are the various purification steps. Synthetically produced sodium nitrate results from absorption of waste nitrous oxide gases in an alkaline solution.
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