Chlorine industry

The mercury cell process is a formerly widely-used production technique for the production of chlorine and caustic soda. The liquid metal, mercury, acts as cathode (negative pole) in this process. In the past, the loss of mercury during the process (to air, soil and water) led to serious health and environmental problems. Therefore, most European chlorine producers have decided to phase out the mercury cell process by 2020. Nevertheless, even today, almost 6000 tons of mercury is used per year for chlorine production in Europe alone. As a result of this, yearly waste outputs contain around 1200 tons of mercury, which are stored on-site or sent off for disposal. The bulk of these wastes are pure mercury (former cathode), mercury contaminated graphite balls (from decomposer), activated carbon, caustic sludge, sediments, waste water treatment sludge, contaminated soil and building rubble. Mercury can be recovered safely from all these waste streams by utilizing the VacuDry® process.

EU regulations require that excess mercury originating from the chlorine industry is removed from the material cycle and stabilized before safe disposal. econ industries offers a stabilisation solution, the so called VaCure process; where mercury is transformed to the non-leachable and chemically-stable compound red cinnabar (HgS). The red cinnabar is suitable for safe disposal fulfilling even the strictest regulations.

Here’s where you can read more about our complete solution for all kinds of mercury contaminated wastes.