Pilot Scale Process to produce Sodium Percarbonate

Abstract

The idea of producing a sodium-percarbonate–based bleaching agent, well known in other countries, emerged from the minimum use of this product found in the Colombian chemical industry due to high cost and importing difficulties. In this sense, a current demand of the product is assessed, as well as the proper conditions to obtain it in the laboratory, the suspected scaling and the economic feasibility. The market survey resulted in a great variety of both the demand and prices of different bleaching agents. Competitor’s products were assessed finding sodium hypochlorite as the most commonly used bleaching agent, 23%, followed by hydrogen peroxide, 15%. The experimental design allows us to establish the connections of the reagent-mixture components to get a maximum yield of 52.0% regarding this stoichiometry connection. Finally, the feasibility of the project is concluded through the financial analysis.