Uhde and Bayer MaterialScience AG of Leverkusen have signed a contract for the construction of a 20,000tn/yr chlorine plant at the Krefeld-Uerdingen chemical park. The plant is due to be commissioned in the first half of 2011. It will be the first time that Bayer MaterialScience’s oxygen-depolarised cathodes (ODCs) are to be used in the electrolysis cells developed by Uhdenora/Uhde to produce chlorine on an industrial scale – thus cutting the energy required to produce chlorine by up to 30% compared with standard membrane technology and indirectly reducing annual CO2 emissions by up to 10,000tns. The project between the two companies, which was initiated in close cooperation with the RWTH University of Aachen, the Technical University of Clausthal and the University of Dortmund, is funded by the Federal German Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) under the “Research for Sustainability” programme, otherwise known by the German acronym FONA. Within the framework of the “Qualification of NaCl ODC technology for industrial chlorine production” project, Bayer MaterialScience and Uhde are for the first time implementing the industrial-scale use of ODC technology for the production of chlorine on a sodium chloride (NaCl) basis.
