What Are Some Uses for Lime Powder?
Manufacturers apply the term lime powder to three different chemical compounds that are related and have similar uses, including application to acid soil to improve plant growth. Acid soil prevents the growth of lawn grass, but adding lime to raise the pH of the soil improves the health of the grass. According to SFGate, ground limestone, calcium carbonate is the most common type of lime for this type of use.
Quicklime is limestone that the manufacturer heats in a kiln. Chemically, it’s calcium oxide and reacts to produce heat upon mixing with water. Uses of quicklime include cleaning blast furnaces and cleaning the smokestacks of power generating stations. Slaked lime is calcium hydroxide. Manufacturers make calcium hydroxide by mixing water and calcium oxide. It dissolves more rapidly than ground limestone when used in landscaping but is more expensive.
Slaked lime has several different common names depending on its particular use. As construction lime, builders use the material to plaster walls and to stabilize road beds. Cooks know the product as pickling lime due to its use in canning. However, the steel industry uses the most slaked lime for the removal of impurities from their product. Upon exposure to carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, calcium hydroxide reacts with carbon dioxide to form calcium carbonate, the primary ingredient in ground limestone.
