Dear Sirs/Madams,

We can offer Caustic Soda (Sodium Hydroxide - flakes/prills/pearls/liquid),  which has many applications.

Caustic Soda, also known as lye and sodium hydroxide, is a caustic metallic base. It is used in many industries, mostly as a strong chemical base in the manufacture of pulp and paper, textiles, drinking water, soaps and detergents and as a drain cleaner. Worldwide production in 2004 was approximately 60 million tons, while demand was 51 million tones. Pure sodium hydroxide is a white solid available in pellets, flakes, granules, and as a 50% saturated solution. It is hygroscopic and readily absorbs water from the air, so it should be stored in an airtight container. It is very soluble in water with liberation of heat. It also dissolves in ethanol and methanol, though it exhibits lower solubility in these solvents than does potassium hydroxide. Molten sodium hydroxide is also a strong base, but the high temperature required limits applications. It is insoluble in ether and other non-polar solvents. A sodium hydroxide solution will leave a yellow stain on fabric and paper.

Uses

Sodium hydroxide is the principal strong base used in the chemical industry. In bulk it is most often handled as an aqueous solution, since solutions are cheaper and easier to handle. Sodium hydroxide, a strong base, is responsible for most of these applications. Another strong base such as potassium hydroxide is likely to yield positive results as well. 56 % of sodium hydroxide produced is used by the chemical industry, with 25 % of the same total used by the paper industry. Sodium hydroxide is also used for the manufacture of sodium salts and detergents, for pH regulation, and for organic synthesis. It is used in the Bayer process of aluminum production.

pH regulation

Sodium hydroxide is used in all sorts of scenarios where it is desirable to increase the alkalinity of a mixture, or to neutralize acids. For example, sodium hydroxide is used as an additive in drilling mud to increase alkalinity in bentonite mud systems increases the mud viscosity, as well as to neutralize any acid gas (such as hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide) which may be encountered in the geological formation as drilling progresses. In the same industry, poor quality crude oil can be treated with sodium hydroxide to remove sulfurous impurities in a process known as caustic washing. As above, sodium hydroxide reacts with weak acids such as hydrogen sulfide and mercaptans to give the non-volatile sodium salts which can be removed.

Paper making

Sodium hydroxide was also widely used in making paper. Along with sodium sulfide, NaOH is a key component of the white liquor solution used to separate lignin from cellulose fibers in the Kraft process. It also plays a key role in several later stages of the process of bleaching the brown pulp resulting from the pulping process. These stages include oxygen delignification, oxidative extraction, and simple extraction, all of which require a strong alkaline environment with a pH > 10.5 at the end of the stages.

Tissue digestion

In a similar fashion, sodium hydroxide is used to digest tissues, such as in a process that was used with farm animals at one time. This process involves the placing of a carcass into a sealed chamber, which then puts the carcass in a mixture of sodium hydroxide and water, which breaks chemical bonds keeping the body intact. This eventually turns the body into a coffee-like liquid, and the only solid that remains are bone hulls, which could be crushed between one's fingertips. Sodium hydroxide is frequently used in the process of decomposing road kill dumped in landfills by animal disposal contractors.

Dissolving amphoteric metals and compounds

Strong bases attack aluminum. Sodium hydroxide reacts with aluminum and water to release hydrogen gas. The aluminum takes the oxygen atom from sodium hydroxide (NaOH), which in turn takes the oxygen atom from the water, and releases the two hydrogen atoms. In this reaction, sodium hydroxide acts as an agent to make the solution alkaline, which aluminum can dissolve in. This reaction can be useful in etching, removing anodizing, or converting a polished surface to a satin-like finish, but without further passivation such as anodizing or alodining the surface may become degraded, either under normal use or in severe atmospheric conditions. In the Bayer process, sodium hydroxide is used in the refining of alumina containing ores (bauxite) to produce alumina (aluminum oxide) which is the raw material used to produce aluminum metal via the electrolytic Hall-Héroult process. Since the alumina is amphoteric, it dissolves in the sodium hydroxide, leaving impurities less soluble at high pH such as iron oxides behind in the form of a highly alkaline red mud.

Esterification and transesterification reagent

Sodium hydroxide is traditionally used in soap making (cold process soap, saponification). It was made in the nineteenth century for a hard surface rather than liquid product because it was easier to store and transport. For the manufacture of biodiesel, sodium hydroxide is used as a catalyst for the transesterification of methanol and triglycerides. This only works with anhydrous sodium hydroxide, because combined with water the fat would turn into soap, which would be tainted with methanol. It is used more often than potassium hydroxide because it is cheaper and a smaller quantity is needed.

Cleaning agent

Sodium hydroxide is frequently used as an industrial cleaning agent where it is often called "caustic". It is added to water, heated, and then used to clean the process equipment, storage tanks, etc. It can dissolve grease, oils, fats and protein based deposits. Surfactants can also be added to the sodium hydroxide solution in order to stabilize dissolved substances and thus prevent redeposition. It is also a common ingredient in oven cleaners. A common use of sodium hydroxide is in the production of parts washer detergents. Parts washer detergents based on sodium hydroxide are some of the most aggressive parts washer cleaning chemicals. The sodium hydroxide based detergents include surfactants, rust inhibitors and defoamers. A parts washer heats water and the detergent in a closed cabinet and then sprays the heated sodium hydroxide and hot water at pressure against dirty parts for degreasing applications. Sodium hydroxide used in this manner replaced many solvent based systems in the early 1990s when trichloroethane was outlawed by the Montreal Protocol. Water and sodium hydroxide detergent based parts washers are considered to be an environmental improvement over the solvent based cleaning methods.

Food preparation

Food uses of sodium hydroxide include washing or chemical peeling of fruits and vegetables, chocolate and cocoa processing, caramel coloring production, poultry scalding, soft drink processing, and thickening ice cream. Olives are often soaked in sodium hydroxide to soften them, while pretzels and German lye rolls are glazed with a sodium hydroxide solution before baking to make them crisp. Owing to the difficulty in obtaining food grade sodium hydroxide in small quantities for home use, sodium carbonate is often used in place of sodium hydroxide.

Best Regards,