The introduction of calcium carbonate

Calcium carbonate is a chemical compound with the formula CaCO3. It is a common substance found in rocks as the minerals calcite and aragonite (most notably as limestone, which is a type of sedimentary rock consisting mainly of calcite) and is the main component of eggshells, gastropod shells, shellfish skeletons and pearls. Calcium carbonate is the active ingredient in agricultural lime and is created when calcium ions in hard water react with carbonate ions to create limescale. It has medical use as a calcium supplement or as an antacid.

what can be used for?

Calcium carbonate is used extensively in many industrial processes. Some of them are mentioned below:

Construction Industry

Mostly calcium carbonate is used either as a building material, or limestoneaggregatefor road building It is also used as an ingredient ofcement. However, because of weathering mainly caused byacid rain,calcium carbonate can no longer used for building purposes on its own. It can only be used as a raw primary substance for building materials.

Purification of iron

Calcium Carbonate is used for purifying iron fromiron orein ablast furnace. It is processedin situ to givecalcium oxide. This forms aslagwith various impurities present, and separates from the purified iron.

Oil industry

Calcium carbonate is added todrilling fluidsto act as formation-bridging and filter cake-sealing agent. Along with this it is also a weighting material which increases the density of drilling fluids to control the downward pressure.

pH corrector

Calcium carbonate is added toswimming pools, as apHcorrector for maintainingalkalinityand offsetting the acidic properties of thedisinfectantagent.

Sugar Industry

It is used as a raw material in therefining of sugarfromsugar beet; it is processed in a kiln withanthraciteto produce calcium oxide and carbon dioxide. This burnt lime is then slaked in fresh water to produce a calcium hydroxidesuspensionfor the precipitation of impurities in raw juice duringcarbonization.

In latex gloves

For growingSeacrete, calcium carbonate is a main source. It is a common filler material forlatex gloveswith the aim of achieving maximum saving in material and production costs.

Paper Industry

Ground calcium carbonate (GCC) and PCC are used as filler inpaperbecause they are cheaper thanwood fibre. GCC are the most important types of fillers currently used in terms of market volume.1020% calcium carbonate can be found inPrinting and writing paper. In North America, we can see that calcium carbonate has begun to replacekaolinin the production ofglossy paper. Europe has been practicing this as alkalinepapermakingor acid-free papermaking for some decades.

Extender in Paints

Here typically 30% by weight of the paint is either chalk or marble. It is also popular filler in plastics.

Ceramic glaze applications

Calcium carbonate is known aswhiting,and is a common ingredient for many glazes in its white powdered form.