Lime is a calcium-containing inorganic material in which carbonates, oxides and hydroxides predominate. Strictly speaking, lime is calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide. It is also the name of the natural mineral (native lime) CaO which occurs as a product of coal seam fires and in altered limestone xenoliths in volcanic ejecta.[1]The word "lime" originates with its earliest use as building mortar and has the sense of "sticking or adhering."[2] These materials are still used in large quantities as building and engineering materials (including limestone products, concrete and mortar) and as chemical feedstocks, and sugar refining, among other uses. Lime industries and the use of many of the resulting products date from prehistoric periods in both the Old World and the New World. Lime is used extensively for waste water treatment with ferrous sulfate.
The rocks and minerals from which these materials are derived, typically limestone or chalk, are composed primarily of calcium carbonate. They may be cut, crushed or pulv
erized and chemically altered. "Burning" (calcination) converts them into the highly caustic material "quicklime" (calcium oxide, CaO) and, through subsequent addition of water, into the less caustic (but still strongly alkaline) "slaked lime" or "hydrated lime" (calcium hydroxide, Ca(OH)2), the process of which is called "slaking of lime".
When the term is en countered in an agricultural context, it probably refers to agricultural lime. Otherwise it most commonly means slaked lime, as the more dangerous form is usually described more specifically asquicklime or "burnt lime".
Applications:
Steel manufacturing
Cement manufacturing
Glass manufacturing
As road ballast
As agricultural lime
In road and traditional building constructions
In paints manufacturing
In power plant smokestacks
Supplier: Gypsum rocks, gypsum powder, rock salt (industrial salt and deicing salt), food grade salt, sodium bicarbonate, limestone, white limestone (marble chips), sulphur (granular, lumps)
