Entry Threshold for Soda Ash Sector     

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on May 1st, 2010 made public the entry threshold for soda ash sector to regulate its development and control overall capacity of soda ash.

1. Plant location
The new regulation says that new projects or expansion projects for soda ash must be built near areas with rich industrial salt, limestone, energy and trona resources, and must comply with local overall industrial layout and soda ash industry planning.
   Soda ash plants cannot be built in those ecological protection areas, scenic areas, nature reserves, cultural heritage protection areas and drinking water source protection zones and near them within the required environmental and safety distance.
   The nation stops approving new and expansion projects with the ammonia-soda process in central, eastern and southwestern China; and stop approving new and expansion projects with the Hou's process in northwestern China.

2. Scale
New and expansion projects must also meet the following the requirements in scale: Ammonia-soda producers should have a minimum designed capacity of 1.2 million t/a, and of which at least 80% should be for heavy soda ash. Soda ash plants with Hou's process must have a minimum designed capacity of 600 000 t/a, of which at least 60% of the soda capacity should be for heavy soda ash and the ammonia capacity should all be for dry ammonium chloride. The plants with the natural soda process must have minimum designed capacity of 400 000 t/a, of which at least 80% should be for heavy soda ash.

3. Energy saving
Ammonia-soda process: the overall energy consumption for light soda ash should be no more than 370 kilogram of standard coal per ton of soda ash, and the ammonia consumption should be no more than 3.5 kilogram per ton of soda ash, and salt consumption no more than 1 500 kilogram per ton of soda ash.
   Hou's process: the overall energy consumption should be no more than 245 kilogram of standard coal for per two tons of soda ash, and the ammonia consumption should be no more than 340 kilogram per ton of soda ash and salt consumption no more than 1 150 kilogram per ton of soda ash.
   Trona process: the overall energy consumption should be no more than 550 kilogram of standard coal per ton of soda ash.
   Existing soda ash companies should meet the requirements mentioned above by the end of 2015.