A recent report said that Japan“s Asahi Glass will import plant equipment from Europe to introduce a process for utilizing byproduct hydrochloric acid (HCl) as a chlorine source at its Chiba factory….
A recent report said that Japan“s Asahi Glass will import plant equipment from Europe to introduce a process for utilizing byproduct hydrochloric acid (HCl) as a chlorine source at its Chiba factory. According to the company“s plan, the process can handle 70,000 to 80,000-tonnes per year output capacity and will be completed by the end of this year. With the process to be introduced, the company will no longer need to raise the operation rate of its chlor-alkali facilities even when demand for chlorine exceeds that for caustic soda, and thus it can avoid increasing caustic soda production unnecessarily. Asahi Glass hopes to cope flexibly with fluctuating demand for chlor-alkali products and improve their profitability on a pair-ton basis by adding more value to chlorine. While about 700,000 tonnes per year of hydrochloric acid are produced in Japan, byproduct hydrochloric acid production reaches 1,600,000 to 1,700,000 tonnes per year. Since production volume of byproduct hydrochloric acid fluctuates according to demand for derivatives, hydrochloric acid supply is unstable in actuality. Asahi Glass“s Chiba factory produces over 100,000-tonnes per year byproduct hydrochloric acid in conjunction with methyl chloride and chlorofluorocarbon production.