Environmental considerations sodium carbonate

Sodium chloride is used more often than any other material in the manufacture of inorganic chemicals. World consumption of this substance is about 150 million tons per year. The major use of sodium chloride is in the production of other essential inorganic chemicals such as chlorine gas, sodium hydroxide, sodium metal, hydrogen gas, and sodium carbonate. It is also used to melt ice and snow on highways and roads. However, since sodium chloride is harmful to plant life and promotes corrosion of cars, its use for this purpose is of considerable environmental concern. 

Anionic surfactants are present in surface water, resulting in serious environmental pollution. Therefore, adsorption of surfactants, such as sodium dodecylsulfate [155,156], on Mg/Al LDHs has received considerable attention. Ulibarri et al. also published the results of sorption of an anionic surfactant (sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate) from water by LDHs and calcined samples (773 K), focusing both on their potential application as a sorbent and on the possibility of their recycling [154,157]. They found that anionic exchange was complete when the interlayer anion in the LDH precursor was Cl", reaching 100 % of AEG, and calcined LDH-carbonates were better adsorbents than those derived from LDH-chloride samples, however. It was also claimed that an increase in the crystallinity of the LDH samples probably leads to better ordered calcined mixed oxides, facilitating reconstruction of the layers and enlarging the absorption capacity. 

---