NE of the favorite discussion questions in freshman chenlike this: "If you were in a location where there were plenty of water'and an adequate supply of electric power, and no raw materials hut common salt could he obtained, what kind of a basic ohemieal industry could you build up, and how would you go ahout it?' To the student, the solution to this problem has always proved breath-taking in its possibilities and scope, once he has done some thinking on it; to alkali men, it is an old and relatively straightforward matter, but out of it, with constant additions Bind improvements, has come the alkali industry as we know it today.Yet the undertaking has grown in the last decade to such proportions as to astonish even those closest to it. Ten years ago thc daily production of chlorine by all methods was less than 1400 tuns, that. of caustic 3300. It is estimated (10) that by the end of this year the total United St,ates production ndl be 5000 tons daily or 1,800,000 tons annually of chlorine, and 5500 tons daily of caustic sods. Of that national production, the Southwest, which has made the most remarkable expansion record among t,he country's alkali-producing areas, will average 20%; yet it. was not until 1934 that caustic soda (by the lime-soda process) was produced in the Southwest (6) and the first chlorine plant in that area went into opefation in 1937.The reason for this remarkahle growth is relatively simplefor chlorine, the unprecedented growth of synthetic organic ohemicds; for caustic soda, the tremendous growth of the rayon industry (from 35,000,000 to 700,000,000 pounds in 25 years).It has been stated (13) by Machlullin that the demand far chlorine is roughly proportional to the demand for synthetic organics. To show this he lists the current major applioations of ohlorine as GOY' of the total produotion in chlorinated products, 21% in the paper industry, 5% in textiles, and 6% in sanitation.Of the chlorinated products, 20% goes into honrene chlorination, 30% into cleaning Huids and refrigerant,s, and IG% into ethylene chlorination (ot,her than cleaning Huids).Chlorine production in America is by some adaptation of either the diaphragm or the mercury cell; in Germany there has also been some production of chlorine by electrolysis of by-product hydrochloric acid (92). A process such as this was advocated by the editors of this journal in 1941 (8), as a method of reducing the waste of the by-product hydrochloric acid from ohlorination processes and increasing chlorine output. Although the first, commercial mercury cell plant in America WBS built in 1895, only ahout 5% of the total production capacity today in this country is by mercury cell.In comparing the two American methods (121, it is found that, capital invqtment and production costs are about the same, and that the diaphragm process is favored where oheap salt is available, the mercury cell where electric power is cheap. The other romvarison point, land it is an important o m ) is in regard to the #D. lstry ooums over s long period of time has run ...
