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Organic catalyst opens way to energy-efficient chlorine production

The industrial process for making chlorine uses a vast amount of energy globally. An organic catalyst has been developed that could form the basis of a more energy-efficient process, replacing expensive inorganic catalysts.
  1. Thomas Turek

    1. Thomas Turek is at the Institute of Chemical and Electrochemical Process Engineering, Clausthal University of Technology, D-38678 Clausthal-Zellerfeld, Germany.

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Chlorine is required for the manufacture of an enormous variety of products in the chemical industry. Most of this chlorine is made using a process called chlor-alkali electrolysis, which requires energy equivalent to about 1% of worldwide electricity production, and is therefore responsible for huge carbon dioxide emissions. Any improvement in the energy efficiency of the process would thus be of great economic and environmental importance. Writing in Nature, Yang et al.1 report an organic catalyst with extremely high activity and selectivity for chlorine production in the chlor-alkali process, which could help to reduce its energy demands.

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Nature 617, 472-474 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-01583-z

References

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Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

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