Use of natural soda ash production process waste for SO2 removal

Results of ChemCad©6.0 simulation have been presented on usability of natural soda ash production process waste in order to remove SO₂ from flue gas. Properties and concentrations of the solutions used in this study belong to the waste stream of Eti Soda Inc., and the flue gas compositions were acquired from an existing thermal power plant. SO₂ and H₂O feed rates and flue gas entrance temperature to the absorption tower were optimized through the response surface methodology (RSM) in order to attain highest SO₂ removal yields. It has been found that SO₂ removal remained at 33.83% when the waste composition was lower than 2 wt. % while 100% SO₂ removal was reached as the waste composition was increased to 8 wt. %. This result clearly demonstrates that treatment of natural soda ash production process waste can be done safely and economically while serving as an SO₂ removal agent at the same time.