Nitrilotriacetic acid is commercially available as the free acid and as the sodium salt. It is produced from ammonia, formaldehyde, and sodium cyanide or hydrogen cyanide. Worldwide capacity is estimated at 100 thousand tonnes per year. NTA is also cogenerated as an impurity in the synthesis of EDTA, arising from reactions of the ammonia coproduct.

NTA, that can be used in various industries: Industrial & Institutional Cleaning, Car Wash Chemicals, Oil and Gas, Agriculture. For most applications, NTA is a “drop-in” replacement. The value that NTA brings is that it’s biodegradable and it has a higher chelation value than EDTA – meaning less NTA is required than EDTA for the same performance. Our NTA product is produced domestically. We offer it in powder and in solution. NTA is effective in caustic-based formulations for a number of surface cleaning applications including hard surfaces, metals, and vehicles. Extensive testing in our laboratories has shown that NTA-based vehicle wash formulations are effective against a variety of soiling conditions. In addition, our tests found no corrosion on the paint and lacquer finishes, and no attack on the rubber components.

With a higher binding capacity, NTA chelates more metal ions with less material than EDTA chelating agents. With a nearly 50 percent higher chelation value (154 vs. 104), NTA is pound-for-pound more effective than common EDTA chelating agents, like Versene 100, Dissolvine E-39 and Trilon B. In fact, you need only 0.68 pound of NTA to replace one pound of EDTA – without sacrificing performance.