Sodium Sulfate or “Salt Cake”, as it is more commonly known, makes its way into a variety of products that touch everyone in some way. The five largest uses for sodium sulfate are:

Cleaners – such as powder laundry detergent, powder dish detergent and carpet powder. Sodium sulfate can be used to clean a multitude of things from commercial coffee makers to driveways, garages and swimming pools.

Paper – sodium sulfate gives strength to paper products. It is used in brown paper bags from the supermarket and in cardboard boxes. It can be found in everything from the cardboard container holding a six pack to a pizza box. Sodium sulfate is important to the paper industry because it is used in such a multitude of paper products.

Glass – The windows in your home, the windshield on your vehicle, beverage containers, food containers, insulation, non-food containers and the glassware itself that goes on your kitchen table are all made with the help of sodium sulfate.

Starch – Sodium sulfate is used during starch modification to prevent swelling of the starch by raising its gelatinization temperature. It is added as an insurance to prevent pre-mature swelling or gelatinization of the starch when the temperature and pH are increased during modification. After the completion of the starch modification reaction, the slurry is washed with fresh water to remove the sodium sulfate and other residual chemicals. Therefore, sodium sulfate is not present in the final modified starch product.

Textiles – Sodium sulfate is used in dyeing textiles, it allows the dyes to penetrate evenly.

There are numerous other end uses for sodium sulfate. Application in water treatment, enzymes and fertilizers as well as plenty of room in the industry for future growth.