Introduction:

Sodium nitrate is one of the earliest nitrogen fertilizer, can be used for acid soil, especially suitable for root crops, such as sugar beet and radish. In the end of the 19th century to the early 20th century, Chile exploited sodium nitrate mining in large scale as nitrogen fertilizer for the world. Farmers in Xinjiang uygur autonomous region in China digged desert surface soil contain NaNO3 to plant grape fruits, and the fertilizer effect is remarkable.

Sodium nitrate can be used to make nitrate, picric acid, explosives, mineral raw materials, dyes, osmotic pressure regulator in medicine and other nitrogen compounds, it also can be used in glass, metallurgy, light industry and other industrial sectors.

In glass industry, it can be used for the production of various kinds of glass and its products of defoaming agent, decoloring agent, clarifying agent and oxidation solubilizer. Enamel industry uses it as oxidant, solubilizer, and to make enamel powder. Machinery industry uses it as metal cleaner, dispensing black metallic blue agent. Metallurgical industry uses it for steel and aluminum alloy heat treatment. Light industry uses it as combustion improver of cigarettes. Pharmaceutical industry uses it as a medium of penicillin.