User:Kim Clay/ANSAC

ANSAC(American Natural Soda Ash Corporation) operates as the international distribution arm for four US manufacturers of natural soda ash produced from trona deposits in the Green River Basin, Wyoming. Soda ash, the trade name for sodium carbonate (Na2CO3), is an essential raw material used in the manufacture of glass, detergents, and several sodium-based chemicals. The company is headquartered in Westport, Connecticut, USA, and its current Chief Executive Officer is the company founder and president, John Andrews.

History
ANSAC was founded by John Andrews in 1984 as the American Natural Soda Ash Corporation. The company was set up to act as the international sales, marketing and distribution cooperative for the four leading producers of natural soda ash in the United States.

Soda Ash Commodity
Soda ash is one of the most widely used and important commodities in the United States, contributing substantially to the gross domestic product. For this reason, the Federal Reserve Board incorporates monthly soda ash production data into monthly economic indicators used to monitor the condition of the U.S. economy.

The USA is the world’s largest exporter of soda ash and exported over 5 Million MT in 2008, which accounted for over 50% of the world’s trade in this commodity.

ANSAC Today
ANSAC ships soda ash to all areas of the globe except North America and Western Europe. In these areas, the member companies use their own sales and distribution services. It's estimated export volume in 2008 was 4 Million MT, up from around 3 Million MT in 2000. These volumes make the company the world's largest exporter of natural soda ash.

The soda ash is moved from the plants in Wyoming in a fleet of 4000 rail cars (or 40 unit trains) to ANSAC’s dedicated ocean terminals in Portland, OR and Port Arthur, TX.

ANSAC has 6 dedicated vessels, including the ANSAC Kathryn, ANSAC Asia, ANSAC Sesoda, ANSAC Splendor, Jasmine Ace & King Yukon. The company also uses other vessel chartering arrangements to supply customers all around the world.


 * The Portland terminal is used to supply customers located in the west coast of Latin & Central America, the Middle-East & Asia
 * The Port Arthur terminal is used to supply customers located in the east coast of Latin & Central America, the Caribbean, Africa, & Eastern Europe

Member Companies
The four leading US manufacturers supplying ANSAC with natural soda ash are: These companies mine and process trona into soda ash in the Green River Basin, Wyoming. This area contains the largest reserves of naturally-occurring trona on earth, with deposits estimated at 100 billion tons. The mines and processing plants operate 24 hours per day, year-round. Soda ash production is an economic mainstay of the communities of southwest Wyoming, contributing over $300 million annually.
 * FMC Wyoming, Inc.
 * General Chemical (Soda Ash) Partners
 * Solvay Soda Ash, USA
 * OCI Chemicals Corporation

During the processing and production of soda ash, a number of other sodium compounds are made as co-products, including sodium bicarbonate(baking soda), sodium sulfite, sodium tripolyphosphate, and chemical caustic soda.

Products
Soda ash is made in three main grades - light, medium and dense. These have the same chemical properties and only differ in physical characteristics, such as bulk density and particle size and shape.

ANSAC supplies dense and medium dense soda ash.

Dense Soda Ash
The dense soda ash exported by ANSAC has the following properties:


 * Particle Size -  <75 microns.
 * High sodium carbonate content – Purity levels of at least 99.2% and typically 99.8%
 * Low impurity levels – chloride and iron

Fifty percent of the world-wide production of soda ash is earmarked for soda-lime silica glass manufacture, generally used in the flat glass (automotive and construction), glass container (food and drink) and many other glass industries. The bulk of ANSAC dense soda ash is supplied to this industry.

Medium Dense Soda Ash
The medium dense soda ash exported by ANSAC has the following properties:
 * Particle Size - 150 microns (75%).
 * High sodium carbonate content – Purity levels of at least 99.2% and typically 99.8%
 * Low impurity levels – chloride and iron

Medium dense soda ash dissolves faster than dense soda ash and is typically used as an alternative to synthetic light soda ash in compact detergent manufacture.

Environmental Record
Trona is 1 part soda ash, 1 part sodium bicarbonate and 3 parts water. The production of soda ash is a process of physical separation. It is free from organics, heavy metals and other materials harmful to humans and animals. The production of soda ash from trona uses far less water, energy and produces far less CO2 than any synthetic method of production for soda ash. There are no harmful waste of other effluents released into the environment. Natural trona-based soda ash is considered the purest and greenest soda ash available. ANSAC has no citations from the United States Environmental Protection Agency or any other environmental group.