OxyChem Chlorine Handbook 1 of 32 - Force Flow

1 OxyChem Chlorine Handbook 1 of 32.. Page .. History and Growth of Chlorine ..2.. 17 Production Process ..3. +. - 1, 3, 5, 7. Cl .. [Ne]3s2p5. Chlorine .. Chlorine .. Cylinders ..5.. Ton Tank Cars ..11. Cargo Tank Trucks ..14. Handling Equipment ..15. Foreword This Handbook outlines the methods for handling, Safety and Emergency Information ..17. storing, and using Chlorine . It also includes information on the manufacture and physical properties of Chlorine . Technical Additional information and contacts can be found on the internet at Occidental Chemical Corporation Basic Chemicals Group Occidental Tower 5005 LBJ Freeway Dallas, Texas 75244. THE INFORMATION PRESENTED HEREIN WAS PREPARED BY TECHNICAL PERSONNEL AND IS TRUE AND ACCURATE TO THE BEST OF OUR. KNOWLEDGE. OxyChem DOES NOT MAKE ANY WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, EXPRESS OR.

2 IMPLIED, REGARDING PERFORMANCE, STABILITY OR ANY OTHER CHARACTERISTIC. THE INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN IS NOT TO BE. CONSTRUED AS AN EXPRESS WARRANTY CONCERNING THE PERFORMANCE, STABILITY OR ANY OTHER CHARACTERISTIC OF ANY OXY- CHEM PRODUCT. THIS INFORMATION IS NOT INTENDED TO BE ALL-INCLUSIVE AS TO MANNER OR CONDITIONS OF USE. HANDLING, STOR- AGE, DISPOSAL AND OTHER ACTIVITIES MAY INVOLVE OTHER OR ADDITIONAL LEGAL, SAFETY OR PERFORMANCE CONSIDERATIONS. WHILE. OUR TECHNICAL PERSONNEL WILL RESPOND TO ANY QUESTIONS REGARDING SAFE HANDLING AND USE PROCEDURES, SAFE HANDLING. AND USE REMAINS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE CUSTOMER. NO SUGGESTIONS FOR USE ARE INTENDED AS, AND NOTHING HEREIN SHALL. BE CONSTRUED AS A RECOMMENDATION TO INFRINGE ANY EXISTING PATENT OR TO VIOLATE ANY FEDERAL, STATE OR LOCAL LAW. Occidental Chemical Corporation 2000.

3 History and 2 of 32. Growth of Chlorine The earliest annals of chemistry The eruption of the French Revo- In the 1930's, the world's chemi- mention Chlorine compounds. In 77 lution cut short the intellectual fer- cal industry erupted in a period of , Pliny the elder published one ment begun by Lavoisier and his extraordinary growth that still con- of the first practical collections of followers. Lavoisier himself was tinues. Bleaching properties of chlo- chemical reactions. His formula for guillotined in 1793, but his chem- rine became just one of its major gold purification generated Chlorine istry had crossed the English Chan- uses. Its disinfecting properties as a by-product in the form of nel. Once again, scientific curiosity remained vital to health, but hydrogen chloride. But more than paralleled commercial necessity.

4 Became a minor market for a chem- 800 years passed before written Humphry Davy, the English father ical that would soon affect almost records showed that the Arabs had of electrolysis, demonstrated that every human activity. learned to react Chlorine with water Chlorine was an element with prop- Today, we use Chlorine as a raw to produce hydrochloric acid. erties useful to Britain's rapidly material in the manufacture of Around 1200 A. D., alchemists expanding textile and paper indus- polyvinyl chloride, a plastic used in discovered that a mixture of tries. fabricating flooring, pipe, wallpaper, hydrochloric and nitric acids dis- In the 1830's Michael Faraday, clothing, furniture, and a wide range solved gold. This procedure gener- Davy's lab assistant, produced a of household products.. We treat ates Chlorine , but there is no record definitive work on both the elec- our illnesses with complex drugs that a heavy greenish gas was trolytic generation of Chlorine and and spray our crops with insecti- evolved.

5 In 1630, Belgian Jean the ease of its liquefaction. In 1851, cides, herbicides, and fungicides Baptiste van Helmont wrote of a Charles Watt obtained the first which contain Chlorine as part of salt gas that we know contained English patent for an electrolytic their basic structure. Chlorinated Chlorine , but it wasn't until 1774 that Chlorine production cell. chemicals also enable us to refrig- Swedish apothecary, Carl Wilhelm Through the 1880's and 1890's erate and freeze our food, cool our Scheele, generated, collected, and producers in Germany, England, homes, offices and cars, and even studied Chlorine as an end in itself. Canada, and the United States insulate our buildings from the heat Even Scheele's discovery was refined Chlorine technology. Around and cold. nearly accidental. He collected chlo- 1890, German producers learned One of the most important uses of rine out of simple curiosity.

6 Perhaps that, while wet liquid Chlorine was Chlorine is helping produce chemi- he too would have treated the gas almost impossible to package, cals that contain no Chlorine at all. casually if he hadn't, on some removal of all water allowed safe Chlorine and Chlorine chemicals impulse, placed some leaves and shipment in ordinary iron or steel help promote reactions that pro- flowers into a bottle of Chlorine . pressure vessels. duce chemicals for antifreeze, tex- Within minutes the plants had By the early 1900's, Chlorine was tile lubricants, fabric softeners, turned white, and man had the first produced in mercury and book-binding pastes, solvents for historical record of the bleaching diaphragm electrolytic cells and lacquers, brake fluids, polyester action of Chlorine . shipped in liquid form as a matter of fibers, and a host of other products.

7 Scheele's discovery came when course. A modern Chlorine industry both modern chemistry and the had formed. By 1913, the first per- industrial revolution were taking manent liquid Chlorine water purifi- their first halting steps down paths cation system had been installed in that would soon change the course Philadelphia. The following year, of history. Antoine Lavoisier, the Altoona, Pennsylvania, became the father of modern chemistry, took first city to treat sewage with liquid note of Scheele's work and quickly Chlorine . became embroiled in a controversy World War I brought added impe- over whether Chlorine was an ele- tus to North American Chlorine pro- ment or a compound. Meanwhile, duction. Submarine warfare practi- textile producers in the French town cally eliminated imports of of Javelle heard of the bleaching chemicals from Europe at a time action of this gas, and in 1789 bub- when markets for many chemicals, bled it through a potash solution including Chlorine , were growing producing eau de Javelle, Javelle rapidly.

8 By the end of the war, the Water, the first commercial liquid United States had a large and firmly Chlorine bleach. entrenched domestic Chlorine industry. Production Process 3 of 32. The basic raw material for the brine into Chlorine , caustic soda, Once the Chlorine stream is process, salt, comes from either and hydrogen. These three cell cooled and dried, compressors and mines or underground wells. Mined types are diaphragm, membrane, or refrigeration machines are used to salt is dissolved with water to form mercury cells. liquefy the gas. Chlorine is most raw brine. In other cases, water is The Chlorine that leaves the cell is easily handled as a liquid in special- pumped into salt deposits, forming hot and wet, and therefore very cor- ly designed pressure containers. brine in the earth that is tapped and rosive. It must be cooled and dried Any gaseous contaminants in the drawn off from the resulting brine before it can be processed in ordi- Chlorine stream are removed.

9 Small well. nary steel equipment. In addition, amounts of Chlorine mixed with Raw brine contains impurities that the Chlorine stream is contaminated them are nearly completely recov- interfere with Chlorine -caustic pro- with air, hydrogen, and some car- ered. The recovered Chlorine is duction. They are removed by bon dioxide (due to small amounts then returned to the liquefaction chemical treatment, settling, and fil- of carbon bearing chemicals in the process. tration. The purified brine is brine). pumped to the cell room. The cell room contains one of three types of electrolytic cells for decomposing Chlorine Process Chlorine Caustic Storage and Purification Shipping Caustic Storage Chlorine Chlorine and Shipping Liquefiers Recovery Terminal Salt Removal Raw Brine Chlorine Centrifuges (for Production Compressors Diaphragm), Fil- ters, and Coolers Chlorine Brine Use as Fuel or Cooling and Purification Sale Drying Chlorine - Caustic Caustic Solution Brine Evaporation (for Hydrogen Caustic Cell Solution Resaturation Diaphragm and Processing Room Storage Membrane).

10 Hydrogen 4 of 32. Characteristics Chlorine , at ordinary conditions of Chlorine require special care and Chlorine is an excellent oxidizing temperature and pressure, is a recommendations can be made agent which accounts for its greenish-yellow gas with a pungent only after a thorough and careful widespread use as a bleaching and irritating odor. Since Chlorine is investigation. Platinum, tantalum, agent. Liquid and gaseous Chlorine very active chemically, it is found in and titanium are some of the metals are nonflammable and will not sup- nature only in combination with resistant to moist Chlorine . port combustion in the normal other elements. Sodium chloride, Dry Chlorine , both gaseous and sense. However, Chlorine will sup- for example, is widely and abun- liquid, can be handled safely in port the combustion of certain dantly distributed in nature and con- equipment fabricated from iron, materials under special conditions.