Trona

Etymology

The word entered English by way of either Swedish (trona) or Spanish (trona), with both possible sources having the same meaning as in English: the mineral natron from North Africa. Both the Spanish and Swedish terms derive from the Arabic trōn, which in turn derives from Arabic natron and Hebrew נתרן (natruna), which comes from ancient Greek νιτρον (nitron), derived ultimately from Ancient Egyptian ntry (or nitry).

Natural deposits

Trona has also been found in magmatic environments. Research has shown that trona can be formed by autometasomatic reactions of late-magmatic fluids or melts (or supercritical fluid-melt mixtures), with earlier crystallized rocks within the same plutonic complex, or by large-scale vapor unmixing in the very final stages of magmatism.

Crystal structure

The crystal structure of trona was first determined by Brown et al. (1949). The structure consists of units of 3 edge-sharing sodium polyhedra (a central octahedron flanked by septahedra), cross-linked by carbonate groups and hydrogen bonds. Bacon and Curry (1956) refined the structure determination using two-dimensional single-crystal neutron diffraction, and suggested that the hydrogen atom in the symmetric (HC2O6)3− anion is disordered. The environment of the disordered H atom was later investigated by Choi and Mighell (1982) at 300 K with three-dimensional single-crystal neutron diffraction: they concluded that the H atom is dynamically disordered between two equivalent sites, separated from one another by 0.211(9) Å. The dynamically disordered H atom was reinvestigated at low temperature by O'Bannon et al. 2014 and they concluded that it does not order at temperatures as low as 100K.

Uses

• Trona is a common source of soda ash, which is a significant economic commodity because of its applications in manufacturing glass, chemicals, paper, detergents, and textiles.
• It is used to condition water.
• It is used to remove sulfur from both flue gases and lignite coals.
• It is a product of carbon sequestration of flue gases.
• It is also used as a food additive.

Mining operations

• Rio Tinto – Owens Lake
• Magadi Soda Company
• Searles Valley Minerals Inc.
• Solvay
• Tata Chemicals
• Genesis Alkali formerly Tronox Alkali formerly FMC Corporation
• General Chemical
• Ciner Wyoming formerly OCI Chemical Corp.
• ANSAC
• Eti Soda, Turkey
• Kazan Soda Elektrik, Turkey
• Church & Dwight – Green River Mine
• Intrepid Potash
• Simplot

References

References

1. Warr, L.N.. (2021). "IMA–CNMNC approved mineral symbols". Mineralogical Magazine.
2. [http://rruff.geo.arizona.edu/doclib/hom/trona.pdf Handbook of Mineralogy]
3. [http://www.mindat.org/min-4031.html Mindat]
4. [http://webmineral.com/data/Trona.shtml Webmineral data]
5. (1 November 1982). "Neutron diffraction study of sodium sesquicarbonate dihydrate". Acta Crystallographica Section B: Structural Crystallography and Crystal Chemistry.
6. [http://mineral.galleries.com/minerals/carbonat/trona/trona.htm Mineral galleries] {{Webarchive. link. (2005-04-08 , 2008)
7. "Trona-salt | SAOB".
8. C. Michael Hogan (2008) [http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=22373&mode=&order=0 ''Makgadikgadi''], The Megalithic Portal, ed. A. Burnham
9. Wyoming Mining Association (2017). [https://www.wyomingmining.org/minerals/trona/ Wyoming Mining Association: Trona Mining] Wyoming Mining Association. Retrieved on 2017-10-25.
10. Manega, P.C., Bieda, S., 1987. Modern sediments of Lake Natron, Tanzania. Sciences Geologiques. Bulletin 40, 83–95.
11. Eckardt, F. D., Drake, N., Goudie, A. S., White, K., & Viles, H. (2001). The role of playas in pedogenic gypsum crust formation in the Central Namib Desert: a theoretical model. ''[[Earth Surface Processes and Landforms]]'', 26(11), 1177–1193.
12. Helvaci, C., 1998. The Beypazari trona deposit, Ankara Province, Turkey. In: Dyni, J.R., Jones, R. W. (Eds.), Proceedings of the first international soda-ash conference; Volume II, v. 40: Laramie, WY, Public Information Circular – Geological Survey of Wyoming, pp. 67–103.
13. Zhang, Youxun, 1985. Geology of the Wucheng trona deposit in Henan, China. In: Schreiber, B.C., Warner, H.L. (Eds.), Sixth international symposium on salt, 1, pp. 67–73.
14. (2002). "PH changes in peralkaline late-magmatic fluids". Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology.
15. (1949). "The crystal structure of sodium sesquicarbonate". Acta Crystallographica.
16. Bacon, G.E., and Curry, N.A. (1956) A neutron-diffraction study of sodium sesquicarbonate. Acta Crystallographica, 9, 82–85.
17. (1982). "Neutron diffraction study of sodium sesquicarbonate dihydrate". Acta Crystallographica Section B Structural Crystallography and Crystal Chemistry.
18. (2014). "Trona at extreme conditions: A pollutant-sequestering material at high pressures and low temperatures". American Mineralogist.
19. Kong Y., and Wood M.D. (2010) Dry injection of trona for SO3 control. Power, 154, 114–118.
20. (2013). "The Removal of Sulfur from Dursunbey and İskilip Lignites in Turkey, Using Natural Trona: 1. The Effect of the Thermal Method". Energy Sources, Part A: Recovery, Utilization, and Environmental Effects.
21. (2013). "Carbon dioxide capture capacity of sodium hydroxide aqueous solution". Journal of Environmental Management.
22. (1999). "East African magadi (Trona): Fluoride concentration and mineralogical composition". Journal of African Earth Sciences.
23. (2016-03-25). "2015 Wyoming Mines State Inspector Annual Report".
24. "The Trona Industry in Sweetwater County {{!}} Green River, WY".
25. "Church and Dwight {{!}} Consumer Goods {{!}} Home and Personal Care Products".
26. "Locations".
27. "The J.R. Simplot Company – Bringing Earth's Resources to Life".