| Matthew Sheorn
This year’s Earth Day theme is “Invest in Our Planet”. What does that statement mean to Southern Ionics? To us it means investing in our processes and products for operating efficiencies to improve our impacts on the environment. For our customers, SII’s catalog of chemicals includes aluminum, sulfur, and ammonia based products that play critical roles to recycle wastewater and to prevent emission of harmful chemicals into air and water.
Recycling industrial wastewater plays an important role in efficient use of water resources. Southern Ionics Aluminum Sulphate, Sodium Aluminate, and Aluminum Chloride products are used to remove particles suspended in wastewater. Municipalities and industry use chlorine to disinfect wastewater prior to discharge into receiving streams. Southern Ionics’ sulfur products, Sodium Bisulfite, Sodium Sulfite and Sodium Thiosulfate, are dechlorinating agents that neutralize residual chlorine in wastewater prior to discharge into natural water sources.
Another way that our chemistries act to minimize environmental impact is by making other manufacturing processes more efficient leading to reduced waste or improved yield, and in some cases, both. SII’s Aluminum Sulphate, Sodium Aluminate, and Aluminum Chloride products are key ingredients for the manufacture of high performance catalysts for the efficient conversion of crude oil into gasoline, low sulfur diesel fuel, and plastics.
Nitrogen Oxide and Nitrogen Dioxide (commonly called NOx) are greenhouse gases that are produced from combustion processes such as power generation, cement production and diesel engines. NOx reacts with other compounds and sunlight to produce smog and nitric acid (acid rain). SII’s Aqua Ammonia is used in conjunction with Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) systems to convert harmful NOx emission into Nitrogen and Oxygen, the molecules that make up 99% of our air.
While the world continues to strive for clean energy sources, Southern Ionics products are used every day to reduce emissions and increase recycling of wastewater. We continue to improve the properties and efficiencies of our products and responsibly develop new products that enable our customers to maximize efficiency, minimize waste, and recycle. We take our environmental responsibility seriously and strive to serve as good stewards of the environment not only on Earth Day but every day.