Introduction
Chlorine is one of the most important base chemicals in chemical industry. The worldwide chlorine production capacity in 2008 was 63 million tons per year with significant increasing tendency [1]. About 60 % of all chemical products need chlorine during the production process. These products would be not available without chlorine or more raw materials and/or energy would be needed for production. Nevertheless, chlorine is not present in most final products. It is used due to its high reactivity for selective formation of intermediates and finally removed. Examples are polyurethanes and polycarbonates, pharmaceuticals, ultrapure silicon for electronic chips, titanium dioxide as white pigment, silicone sealing compounds or PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene), and much more. The most important chlorine-containing product is PVC (polyvinylchloride, using round 1/3 of the produced chlorine).
About 95 % of the chlorine is manufactured by electrolysis of sodium chloride solution...
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Jörissen, J. (2014). Chlorine and Caustic Technology, Overview and Traditional Processes. In: Kreysa, G., Ota, Ki., Savinell, R.F. (eds) Encyclopedia of Applied Electrochemistry. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-6996-5_297
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