Chlorine Good
“Although we have yet to successfully connect renewable energy and chlorine production on a global scale, the element remains an indispensable aspect of our society, protecting the most important parts and supporting the most overlooked corners of our community fabric.”
It may seem outlandish, but—from an energy-cost basis—our economy considers chlorine production as important to civilization as iron, steel, glass and cement. It is an essential element in the infrastructure of our lives largely because it has so many critically beneficial applications for our society.
Chlorine was “discovered” two years before the American Revolution, but only in 1810 was it recognized as an element. The primary value we associate chlorine with today, as a disinfectant, was first put into use in 1847 to kill a fever threatening mothers and their newborn children in Vienna General Hospital’s maternity ward.
How We Eat
Most cleaning products for your kitchen or your dining area contain chlorine, not because it is the only solution, but because it is the fastest and most fool-proof way to eliminate E. coli and Salmonella. This is the same reason that every level of the food production and preparation industry, from processing and packaging plants to local restaurants and food stands, rely on chlorine to ensure the quality of the product and the safety for the end user.
Positive Environmental Impact
Aside from enjoying a notably efficient production process—in that the raw materials of chlorine production are readily available and the by-products of its production can also command commercial value—chlorine is also an essential material in the renewable energy sector. Most directly, chlorine plays an active part in the production of solar panels, but it also is used in the manufacture of wind turbine blades. Its energy-related properties extend even to systems which help us conserve energy, such as home insulation, vinyl windows, and hybrid car batteries.
Contributing to Production
We were proud to work recently with Thyssenkrupp to deliver a chlorine production plant in Jubail, a port city of the Kingdom of Saudia Arabia. Industrialized in 1975, Jubail is now considered the largest “industrial city” in the world and contributes an amazing 7% of Saudi Arabia’s GDP.
The plant will be owned by BCI of Saudi Arabia and will be a primary supplier of chlorine for many of the industrial processes in the city—not the least of which for clean water, which desalination plants in the city produce at the rate of roughly 800,000,000 liters per day.