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Culture Documents
electrolysis plants
Superior membrane
process
tk
A company
of ThyssenKrupp
Technologies
Uhde
2 Table of contents
3 Company profile
15 Technical data
Engineering offices
and headquarters
of Uhde in Dortmund,
Germany.
To date, the Dortmund-based Uhde and De Nora intend to Uhde was founded in 1921 and
engineering contractor with its combine their technologies and is now part of the ThyssenKrupp
highly specialised workforce of expertise in research and devel- group. The company employs
around 3,500 and its interna- opment, in order to provide 3,500 persons around the
tional network of subsidiaries their worldwide alkali chlorine world. Its main field of activity,
and branch offices, has suc- industry customers with even alongside chlorine alkali elec-
cessfully completed over 2,000 better performance in the fields trolysis, being in the
projects throughout the world. of planning, design, construc- engineering and construction of
tion and after-sales service for plants for fertilisers, organic
Uhde can offer more than 250 electrolysis plants. It is our chemicals, polymers, oil and
different processes covering target to optimise the relevant gas technology and pharma-
many different sectors of the technologies and to reduce ceuticals.
chemical industry. even further the energy con-
sumption. Since 1923, De Nora has been
In the field of chlorine technology Uhde and De Nora have expe- one of the world leaders in the
Uhde and De Nora established rience stretching back over development of new technolo-
beginning of 2001 a Joint decades in this field and have gies and industrial processes,
Venture to cooperate in the field constructed over 135 reference particularly for the alkaline
of electrolysis technology. plants around the world. They chlorine industry. The company
This cooperation will be based now have subsidiaries on all employs a total of 650 staff, with
on the foundation of two joint continents. 350 in Italy and 300 abroad.
companies domiciled in Milan/
Italy and mentioned below: Our plant construction business
in this technological field will
Uhdenora Technologies S.r.l. in future be handled by Uhde
Uhdenora S.p.A. of Dortmund, Germany and
Uhdenora S.p.A. of Milan.
The new italian company will be
managed by Uhde.
This cooperation will further
improve our service for our cus-
tomers in this highly competitive
market.
4 Uhde’s remarkably
long experience
Uhde has more than The first processes used to Today both the diaphragm and Until today Uhde’s know-how is
manufacture chlorine and the amalgam processes have based on the combined efforts
caustic soda involved the become obsolete for new of these three companies in the
40 years of experience
electrolytic splitting of salt installations as they have a research and development of
(sodium chloride) and were higher energy consumption and this technology.
in the designing and introduced to Germany in 1890 are less environmentally friendly. Since 1998 Uhde is the sole
in the form of the ”Griesheim” They have been replaced by the owner of this know-how and
construction of chlorine/ diaphragm cell and to the USA latest development in chlorine/ continues to put great effort in
in 1897 in the form of the caustic soda technology: the the further development of the
”Castner-Kellner” cell which membrane process. Uhde membrane cell technology.
caustic soda plants.
worked on a mercury/amalgam
basis. In 1973 when the first commer- In December 2000, Uhde and
Our more than 150 cial membranes became avail- Gruppo de Nora of Milano, Italy
In the 1980s the manufacture able, Hoechst AG, Bayer AG and agreed on the foundation of
plants throughout the of chlorine using these two Uhde GmbH began research Uhdenora Technologies S.r.l. to
processes reached maximum and development work on the further optimise the technology
capacity producing approx. 35 membrane technology. and to reduce even further the
world have an overall
million tpa. More than 80 of the This process is not just energy energy consumption. The
plants involved were built by efficient, it also produces entrepreneurial management of
production capacity in Uhde. consistently high-quality caustic the joint company lays with
soda, is environmentally friendly, Uhde.
excess of 9 million tpa and extremely safe.
its field.
3 200 _
2 800 _
2 400 _
2 000 _
contractor able to
supply complete
Brine
Brine Brine
plant complexes
Filtration
Filtration Purification
Chlorate Transformer/
Decomposition Rectifier
7
Caustic Caustic 50 %
Concentration
Functional description
Pure brine enters the anode
half shell via an external tube
and a nozzle and is distributed
across the whole width via an
internal feed pipe.
Foam
Functional description
Pure brine enters the anode
half shell via an external tube
and a nozzle and is distributed
across the whole width via an
internal feed pipe.
Baffle plate
A downcomer plate uses the
gas lift effect to create a high
degree of internal brine circula-
tion ensuring ideal distribution
with uniform density and
temperature.
A baffle plate is arranged in
the upper section of the anode
half shell and has the following
3 basic functions:
Contact strip
1.+2.
Principle of the
current flow
through the bipolar
stack of single
elements.
Current through bipolar electrolyser 11
Membrane
Anode
1.
Plate conductor
Connection of the
inlet and outlet
pipes to each
individual element
and to the power
supply.
The advantages of a modular concept 13
All the elements are connected Below: The single Top: Bipolar membrane electrolyser,
to the inlet and outlet headers element rack: pictured here in the cell room at BAYER
Each element Uerdingen: we see 6 bipolar electrolysers
arranged underneath the elec- can be exchanged with a total of 158 single elements in each
trolyser by flexible, transparent individually electrolyser (79 elements forming a stack).
PTFE tubes (see picture). The
tubes with smaller cross-sec-
tions ensure that a constant
stream of electrolyte is supplied
to the half-shells, whilst the
Single element
tubes with larger cross-sections
(corrugated hoses) carry the Contact strip
chlorine gas with anolyte and
hydrogen gas with catholyte
away from the cell. This fail-safe
connection system can be used
External flexible
to check each individual cell for hose-connections
Cell rack
proper functioning by observing for the inlet and
outlet of fluids,
the colour and flow of the Header
located underneath
product streams in these tubes. the electrolyser.
Inlet hoses
14 There is even more in for you
Cell room
crane
Product main
headers for Cl2+H2
Single elements
Pressure plates
The Uhde design of the cell room has been A number of electrolysers Each electrolyser is equipped
(the number being determined with a control and instrument
by the production capacity) unit for adjusting the amount of
optimised to ensure simple maintenance,
are set up side by side and electrolytes and with shut-off
electrically connected in parallel. valves.
minimal space requirement and low investment A rectifier supplies one or more
of the electrolysers with direct A header system is attached to
costs. It has been standardised to a large extent current and they can be easily the front side of the electrolysers
serviced by disconnecting the for distributing the electrolytes,
rectifier or by the individual or for collecting the products.
and is shown in detail in a 3D computer model
circuit breakers and isolating
switches.
(PDMS).
The pipelines, which are used
for supplying the single ele-
ments with brine and caustic
soda and discharging the
chlorine, caustic soda and
hydrogen, are arranged under-
neath the electrolyser such
that the single elements can
be easily replaced.
Technical data 15
Operating data Product quality Power Consumption per metric ton NaOH
U [V] E[kWh]
Current density up to 6 kA/m2 Caustic soda solution
3,2_ _2300
Power consumption see graph NaOH 32 % (wt.)
Cell temperature 88 - 90° C NaCl < 30 ppm
3,0_ _2200
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 i [kA/m2]
16 Solutions through innovations
Single element technology High material quality Membrane stability Individual seal system
The single element can be The anode half shell (Ti), catho- The membranes in the cell Each single element is sealed
replaced quickly and easily. de half shell (Ni), gaskets and elements are fixed between using a flange, bolting and
Elements are assembled tubes (PTFE) are all made two electrodes using spacers. PTFE gaskets. Each cell
in the electrolyser workshop, from corrosion-resistant The electrode spacing can be element is tested prior to
where leakage tests are material and guarantee the optimally adapted to each operation to ensure that it is
carried out. cell elements a maximum membrane type using spacers 100% leakproof. Costly
service life. The electrolyser with the appropriate thick- pressing systems, such as
These features ensure: headers are long service life ness. those used in electrolysers
● highest possible operational components and are made with a filter press design, are
reliability from PVC/FRP or titanium on not necessary.
● easy maintenance the anode side and from
● cost-optimised membrane PP/FRP on the cathode side.
replacement and electrode
recoating according to
schedule
● no additional investments
needed for back-up electro-
lysers
● minimal loss of production
17
Pressurised cell operation External caustic circulation Brine acidification Chlorine drying tower
The robust design and excel- Uhde strongly recommends Feed brine can be acidified to The Uhde chlorine drying
lent tightness of the cells that the membrane electrol- improve the Cl2 gas quality. tower is part of our range of
allows that they can be oper- ysers are operated with exter- The potential risk of destroy- proprietary equipment. One
ated at pressures of up to nal circulation loops for the ing membranes by over-acidi- particular feature of the tower
200 mbar g. Blowers for Cl2 caustic soda solution and with fication is eliminated in the is the fact that sulphuric acid
and H2 are not necessary as a heat exchanger. This will al- cell element by the internal consumption is at its lowest
air cannot be sucked into the low plant operators to optimi- cell design (downcomer plate) when the ultimate humidity of
Cl2 or H2 lines. se the temperature of the cells which provides effective mix- the chlorine is at its lowest.
Each electrolyser is equipped at any load and to cool down ing within the cells. This is achieved by the two-
with safety valves for Cl2 and electrolysers in the event stage design which is housed
H2 to ensure safe plant of shutdowns thus avoiding in a single tower thus saving
operation. This safety device the production of off-spec. Waste gas dechlorination space and investment cost.
is exclusive to Uhde. caustic soda. Any plant using gaseous or
Operate with a large volume liquid chlorine, must comply
of caustic soda solution makes with stringent environmental
the plant not sensitive to short regulations. The waste gas
disturbances e. g. to the dechlorination unit is an es-
demineralised water supply. sential feature in this respect
and the Uhde design ensures
that chlorine cannot enter the
environment under any oper-
ating conditions.
Services for our customers 19