Simulação do processo Solvay no laboratório didático

The Solvay Process is an important route for the industrial preparation of sodium carbonate from brine and CO2. However, experiments illustrating such process are performed only in a few chemistry courses, mainly because of the difficulties to precipitate out the intermediate product NaHCO3 within the 3 or 4 hours generally available for laboratory classes. In this article we describe a method that properly simulates the Solvay process using glass apparatus that can be found in any chemistry laboratory. The good yields and purity attainable, associated with the short time (~3 hours) required to get the sodium bicarbonate, account for the suitability of our method for chemistry or chemical engineering undergraduate students laboratory classes.