Bayer MaterialScience plans to build another chlorine recycling plant at the Bayer Integrated Site in Shanghai. The process for this new unit is based on the catalytic oxidation of hydrogen chloride using oxygen. The new technology has been developed by the Japan-based Sumitomo Chemical Co. Ltd, and was licensed to Bayer MaterialScience. The plant will ensure the chlorine supply of the new 250,000tn/yr toluene diisocyanate facility in Shanghai. Bayer MaterialScience has now broken ground for this new plant, which is based on the company’s gas phase phosgenation process and is scheduled to come on stream in 2010. The new chlorine recycling technology has been awarded the prestigious Green & Sustainable Chemistry Award in Japan for being both energy-efficient and environmentally friendly. It enables a reduction in energy consumption of more than half versus the conventional process. The process will take hydrogen chloride co-produced during the manufacture of isocyanates, and will convert it very efficiently to chlorine which is re-used as raw material.
