Calcium chloride

Raw materials

1. Sodium chloride

2. Calcium carbonate

Process

Calcium chloride can be produced directly from limestone, but large amounts are also produced as a by-product of the Solvay process.

Solvay process results in soda ash (predominantly sodium carbonate,Na₂CO₃) from brine (as a source of sodium chloride, NaCl) and from limestone (as a source of calcium carbonate, CaCO₃).

The overall process is: 2 NaCl + CaCO₃ → Na₂CO₃ + CaCl₂

Product

Calcium chloride

Used for/as

Desiccant, deicing and freezing point depression, source of calcium ions,  food additive, treatment of  hypocalcaemia, speeding up the initial setting in concrete mixes, pH buffer and to adjust the calcium hardness of the water in swimming pools, additive in plastics and in fire extinguishers, drainage aid in wastewater treatment, additive in blast furnaces to control scaffolding (clumping and adhesion of materials that prevent the furnace charge from descending), thinner in fabric softener, the exothermic dissolution of calcium chloride is used in self-heating cans and heating pads, increasing the density of solids free brines in the oil industry, provide inhibition of swelling clays in the water phase of invert emulsion drilling fluids

Production facility

Gold Coast, QLD

Export

Yaounde, Cameroon