Zhenhua brand Sodium Sulfate , Glauber Salt used in the chemical, papermaking and glass, dye, printing and dyeing, and pharmaceutical industries.

Sodium Sulfate, Glauber Salt

Regional trends have highlighted the growth in consumption in Southeast Asia, particularly in Indonesia and Vietnam, with total imports exceeding 450,000 tons in 2023. Companies are adopting low-energy consumption refining technologies to reduce the energy consumption per ton of sodium sulfate from 180 kilowatt-hours to 145 kilowatt-hours in their upgraded facilities.

The increasing demand for cleaning products in households and industries has raised the demand for sodium sulfate, which serves as a filler in powdered detergents. The global production of detergents exceeds 26 million tons annually, and the role of sodium sulfate remains crucial. In 2023, the industry consumed over 2.3 million tons of sodium sulfate, especially driven by the markets in Asia-Pacific and Latin America. Its chemical stability and cost-effectiveness make it an ideal choice for large-scale, low-cost formulations. This upward trend is in line with the enhanced global awareness of health and hygiene, especially after the pandemic.

Sodium sulfate produced in the by-product process, especially in the dyeing and papermaking processes, poses challenges to waste management. In 2023 alone, over 580,000 tons of sodium sulfate waste needed to be treated or landfilled due to impurities or pollution. This limits reusability and increases environmental compliance costs. Some manufacturing units reported that up to 18% of the sodium sulfate production was unusable waste. In addition, stricter regulations in the European Union and North America have strengthened the review of chemical disposal practices, making natural extraction the preferred (though limited) alternative