Ammonium chloride as raw material
for life science products

What is ammonium chloride?

Ammo­ni­um chlo­ride is the ammo­ni­um salt of hydrochlo­ric acid. It con­sists of ammo­ni­um cations (NH₄⁺) and chlo­ride anions (Cl-). It is a col­or­less, crys­talline sub­stance with the chem­i­cal for­mu­la NH₄­Cl and a molar mass of 53.49 g/mol. Ammo­ni­um chlo­ride is high­ly sol­u­ble in water and forms slight­ly acidic solu­tions in aque­ous solution.

Overview

Name: Ammo­ni­um chlo­ride, ammo­nia, ammo­nia salt, chlorammonium

Chem­i­cal for­mu­lar: NH₄Cl

Molar mass: 53,49 g/mol

Puri­ty: API — Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal quality

Min­i­mum order quan­ti­ty: 20 kg

Production of ammonium chloride

Ammo­ni­um chlo­ride is a ver­sa­tile min­er­al salt that is used in var­i­ous indus­tries such as the phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal indus­try, the cos­met­ics indus­try and food pro­duc­tion. Ammo­ni­um chlo­ride is main­ly pro­duced using the mod­i­fied Solvay process, which accounts for around 80 % of glob­al pro­duc­tion. This process involves the reac­tion of ammo­nia with car­bon diox­ide and sodi­um chlo­ride, pro­duc­ing sodi­um car­bon­ate as a by-prod­uct in addi­tion to ammo­ni­um chlo­ride. The advan­tages of this process lie in the effi­cient use of raw mate­ri­als and the pos­si­bil­i­ty of obtain­ing soda ash (sodi­um car­bon­ate) as a by-product.

NH3 + HCl ➔ NH4Cl

In addi­tion to the Solvay process, ammo­ni­um chlo­ride is also pro­duced by direct gas phase syn­the­sis. This method, in which ammo­nia and hydro­gen chlo­ride react direct­ly, is main­ly used on a lab­o­ra­to­ry scale or in niche indus­tries with high puri­ty requirements.

The mar­ket sit­u­a­tion for ammo­ni­um chlo­ride shows con­tin­u­ous growth, espe­cial­ly in the phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal sec­tor. The glob­al mar­ket for ammo­ni­um chlo­ride was worth around USD 1.44 bil­lion in 2022 and will increase to USD 1.89 bil­lion by 2030, which cor­re­sponds to annu­al growth of around 3.5%. The phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal sec­tor is also grow­ing strong­ly, as ammo­ni­um chlo­ride is used in cough syrups as an expec­to­rant and in infu­sion solu­tions as an elec­trolyte sub­sti­tute. 1) 2)

Request fur­ther information

Characteristics and functions of ammonium chloride in biochemistry

Ammo­ni­um chlo­ride plays an impor­tant role in bio­chem­istry, espe­cial­ly in cell biol­o­gy and mol­e­c­u­lar biol­o­gy. It is often used in pro­tein purifi­ca­tion, as it reduces the sol­u­bil­i­ty of pro­teins and facil­i­tates their iso­la­tion and purifi­ca­tion. In addi­tion, ammo­ni­um chlo­ride is an impor­tant com­po­nent of buffer solu­tions, which are nec­es­sary in many bio­chem­i­cal exper­i­ments. These solu­tions help to keep the pH sta­ble dur­ing exper­i­ments, which is essen­tial for accu­rate and repro­ducible results.

Use of ammonium chloride in the pharmaceutical industry

In med­i­cine, ammo­ni­um chlo­ride is used as an expec­to­rant (mucolyt­ic). It helps to liq­ue­fy the mucus in the air­ways, mak­ing it eas­i­er to cough up. This prop­er­ty makes it a com­mon ingre­di­ent in cough syrups and oth­er cold med­i­cines. Ammo­ni­um chlo­ride is also used to acid­i­fy urine, which can be help­ful for cer­tain med­ical con­di­tions, such as treat­ing uri­nary tract infec­tions or dis­solv­ing kid­ney stones.

Use of ammonium chloride in cosmetics

In the cos­met­ics indus­try, ammo­ni­um chlo­ride is used as a pH reg­u­la­tor and thick­en­ing agent. It is used in sham­poos, hair con­di­tion­ers and skin care prod­ucts, where it reg­u­lates the vis­cos­i­ty and improves the sta­bil­i­ty of the prod­ucts. These prop­er­ties help to ensure that cos­met­ic prod­ucts have a pleas­ant con­sis­ten­cy and spread well on the skin.

Ammonium chloride as food additive E510

In the food indus­try, ammo­ni­um chlo­ride is used as an acid­i­ty reg­u­la­tor and fla­vor­ing agent. It is approved as a food addi­tive E510 in the EU and many oth­er coun­tries and is used in licorice prod­ucts in par­tic­u­lar. Ammo­ni­um chlo­ride as E510 gives them a char­ac­ter­is­tic salty taste. In Nordic coun­tries such as Fin­land, Swe­den and the Nether­lands, it is known as “salmi­ak” and is used in sweets, drinks and even ice cream. 

How­ev­er, the use of ammo­ni­um chlo­ride as a food addi­tive is sub­ject to cer­tain guide­lines and restrictions:

  • Usage quan­ti­ties: There is no fixed max­i­mum quan­ti­ty for ammo­ni­um chlo­ride, as long as it is safe to use. It is there­fore used in food prod­ucts in quan­ti­ties that are nec­es­sary to achieve the desired tech­no­log­i­cal effect.
  • Label­ing: If ammo­ni­um chlo­ride is used as a pro­cess­ing agent and is not present as a food addi­tive in the final prod­uct, it does not have to be indi­cat­ed on the label.
  • Safe­ty assess­ment: No harm­ful effects of ammo­ni­um chlo­ride in the quan­ti­ties used as a food addi­tive are known up to now.

Conclusion

Ammo­ni­um chlo­ride dif­fers from oth­er raw mate­ri­als due to its spe­cif­ic chem­i­cal prop­er­ties and appli­ca­tions. This unique com­bi­na­tion makes it par­tic­u­lar­ly use­ful in bio­chem­istry, med­i­cine and the food industry.

Fun fact about ammonium chloride

In the tra­di­tion­al Chi­nese pro­duc­tion of thou­sand-year-old eggs, chick­en or duck eggs are soaked in a mix­ture of ammo­ni­um chlo­ride, salt, lime and ash. This fer­men­ta­tion process, which can take weeks or even months, gives the eggs their typ­i­cal dark col­or, the trans­par­ent jel­ly-like egg white and the intense, sul­furous taste.

MAGNESIA 708013

Ammo­ni­um chloride

  • EP
  • API
  • Euro­pean origin
  • Com­plies to CEP

Down­load specification

1) Ammo­ni­um Chlo­ride Mar­ket Size, Scope And Indus­try Sta­tis­tics To 2030

2) Mar­ket size and pro­jec­tion of indus­tri­al grade ammo­ni­um chloride

Contact us now

Thomas Raab and the Phar­ma team sup­ports you with tech­ni­cal know-how and finds tai­lor-made solu­tions for your prod­uct idea. 

Also ask for detailed infor­ma­tion about spec­i­fi­ca­tions, safe­ty data sheets or mate­r­i­al sam­ples.

Subscribe to our newsletter
and become an industry expert

Sign up here

Do you have any questions?
Get in touch!

info@magnesia.de

+49 4131 8710-0

MAGNESIA GmbH
Max-Jenne-Straße 2–4
Industriegebiet Hafen

21337 Lüneburg, Germany

Ready to discover MAGNESIA?
Follow us on:

© MAGNESIA GmbH | 2024