Grand Junction Area Chamber of Commerce Energy Briefing

The first Energy Briefing of 2018 was held on February 14th, 12:00 PM at the DoubleTree Hotel, who featured speaker Kirk Daehling, General Manager of Natural Soda. The company located north of Parachute recovers sodium bicarbonate using a process known as solution mining. This involves pumping hot water approximately 1900 feet underground to dissolve the underlying nahcolite beds and return the bicarb saturated water to the surface. By reducing the temperature of the liquor, sodium bicarbonate is crystallized. Excess water is then removed by high speed centrifuging (spin drying). The resultant damp crystal mass is further dried, screened and packed. An expansion project was completed in 2013 to double production capacity to 250,000 tons per annum. Natural Soda produces various size grades of high-quality sodium bicarbonate depending on the requirements of the customer and the end use.