In June 2022, LUVA signed a calcium hypochlorite plant project with an annual output of 5,000 tons with a large-scale chlor-alkali multinational company in South America. This project is mainly to help the owner actively deploy downstream chlorine gas projects, who is one of the largest caustic soda manufacturers in South America. And the raw material for this project comes from the chlorine gas by-product in the production of caustic soda.
Caustic soda is the core product of the chlor-alkali industry. There are many by-products in the production process. The direct product is mainly caustic soda, and the rest are by-products generated in the production process, including chlorine and hydrogen. The three are simultaneously produced in a certain proportion.
Taking the ion-exchange membrane caustic soda plant as an example, this plant can produce 280Nm3 (0.025 ton) of hydrogen by-producing 1 ton of caustic soda. Although most large-scale chlor-alkali plants are equipped with hydrochloric acid and polyvinyl chloride plants to balance chlorine gas and recycle by-product hydrogen, only about 60% are recovered to produce hydrochloric acid, vinyl chloride monomer and hydrogen peroxide. Most of the hydrogen is used as boiler fuel or directly discharged.
How to utilize the chlorine and hydrogen by-products of the caustic soda industry at a high level. Here is a LUVA solution. The by-product chlorine gas is used as the raw material for calcium hypochlorite production, and the by-product hydrogen gas as the raw material for ammonia production, thus giving the by-product chlorine gas and hydrogen higher added value.
