Natural soda ash gets investment boost

WE Soda has overtaken Solvay to become the world’s largest producer of sodium carbonate, also known as soda ash, after acquiring Genesis Alkali for $1.42 billion from Genesis Energy.

Genesis is the largest US producer of soda ash, which it obtains from trona, a mineral rich in sodium carbonate. WE Soda’s facilities in Türkiye also make soda ash from trona. A white, powdery inorganic compound, soda ash is used to make products such as toothpaste, paper, and glass.

Completed on Feb 28., the acquisition almost doubles WE Soda’s soda ash capacity to 9.5 million metric tons (t) per year. The deal brings two large facilities in Wyoming with a combined production capacity of 4.35 million t per year. One, known as Westvaco, involves the traditional underground mining of trona and accounts for about 75% of the acquired capacity. The other 25% comes from a facility called Granger that uses an aqueous extraction method to bring trona to the surface.

For WE Soda, the Westvaco and Granger facilities will complement its own project to build a new soda ash facility in Wyoming. In addition, the firm plans to expand production at the Westvaco facility by 1.0 million–1.5 million t per year in the near term.

WE Soda says it will combine its own aqueous extraction technology—which the firm claims to be the most sustainable and cost-effective way of making soda ash—with Genesis Alkali’s technology in a bid to reduce costs and development risks.

Solvay had been the world’s largest soda ash producer since 1861, when it pioneered synthetic soda ash production. Solvay still uses the synthetic process in plants across Europe; it also mines trona in Wyoming, home of the world’s largest deposits. Other companies mining trona there are Sisecam and Tata Chemicals.