The jug you drink water out of, the crystal that graces your dining table, the bottle you sip soda from — all of these are made of glass, that ubiquitous feature of modern life. Soda ash is an essential raw material in the making of glass and Tata Chemicals Limited (TCL) is India's largest manufacturer of this basic industrial chemical.

Soda ash is the trade name for sodium carbonate and Tata Chemicals produces four categories of this vital alkali: light soda ash, dense soda ash, medium dense soda ash and granular soda ash. TCL's soda ash is as basic to the inorganic chemical industry as steel is to the engineering industry.

Cutting-edge operations
TCL's soda ash plant, which started operations in 1939, utilises the conventional Solvay process technology. With an installed capacity of 875 KTPA of soda ash, TCL is one of the largest producers of synthetic soda ash in the world, accounting for as much as 35 per cent of total production in India. Over the years the manufacturing capacity of TCL's soda ash plant has increased from 40 tonnes per day to the current level of 2,500 tonnes per day.

At TCL, we are committed to ensuring quality through compliance to international standards across various functions, such as:

	Conversion efficiency
	Captive availability of key raw materials
	Innovative techniques of water management
	Simultaneous production of vacuum salt
	Self-reliance in most raw materials
	Simultaneous generation of captive steam and power
	Total energy concept with high thermal efficiency and plant availability
	Energy balance

TCL's cost-effective and integrated operations and additions to capacities give it the competitive edge.

Reaching out
The TCL soda ash plant is equipped with modern facilities to customise products to any size distribution. Its thrust is on continuous improvement of the product specifications to suit the customer's requirement better. The company's new colour-coded soda ash bags are easily identifiable and aesthetically appealing.

North Indian states lead the market share of TCL soda ash with a whopping 30 per cent of the total sales. The light soda ash variant alone accounts for 70 per cent of the total sales. The company's chief export markets are Bangladesh, Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

Glass
Particle-sizing and the density of raw materials used are critical to the final product's desired properties in the glass industry. Soda ash reduces the melting temperature of the sand used in a glass formulation and the alkali helps in the 'workability' or forming of the glass article.

TCL's high-purity soda ash gives clarity, viscosity and chemical control, qualities required in the high-speed processes to manufacture food and drink containers as well as in the manufacture of float glass.

Glass tableware manufacturers too prefer the quality of TCL's soda ash for its clarity. The low chloride levels offered by TCL soda ash help preserve furnace life and are, therefore, critical in the manufacture of tableware as well as float glass. The viscosity of TCL's soda ash helps control thickness variations in the manufacture of float glass, which is used in construction, automobile production, and other glass applications such as thermal and sound insulation.

Uniformity, consistency, and minimal distortion are vital when producing television tubes and light bulbs. Glass is but one of a wide variety of industries that uses the soda ash TCL make; it is also used in the production of other chemicals, mineral processing in mining, pulp and paper manufacture, the making of sodium compounds, soaps and detergents, water treatment, metal refining, textile processing, cleaning preparations, petroleum and metallurgical refining, iron and steel, aluminium and drugs.

Detergents
The speed at which TCL soda ash dissolves, its colour and bulk density are important in detergent-industry applications such as laundry and dishwasher detergents, general cleansers and metal-refining detergents.

Chemicals
TCL soda ash's white colour and low impurity content make it the preferred element for manufacturing high-quality sodium silicate. TCL's sodium bicarbonate plant has a capacity of 50 KTPA. The product is manufactured from its own soda ash and marketed domestically as well as being exported to the Middle East, Africa and Bangladesh. Other manufacturers use TCL's low-chloride soda ash of consistent quality as a source of alkali in the making of sodium tripolyphosphate.

TCL soda ash is a quality input in the production of sodium chromate and dichromate, feedstock for a variety of chromium chemicals used in pigments, tanning, glass, ceramics. Sodium percarbonate, another chemical product made from TCL soda ash, and hydrogen peroxide is used in detergents to provide (active oxygen) bleaching and sanitising. TCL's soda ash is also used in the manufacture of a wide variety of products such as sodium carbonate monohydrate and decahydrate, sodium hexacyanoferrate(II) and sodium aluminate.