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Industrial metabolism of chlorine: a case study of a chlor-alkali industrial chain

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Abstract

Substance flow analysis (SFA) is applied to a case study of chlorine metabolism in a chlor-alkali industrial chain. A chain-level SFA model is constructed, and eight indices are proposed to analyze and evaluate the metabolic status of elemental chlorine. The primary objectives of this study are to identify low-efficiency links in production processes and to find ways to improve the operational performance of the industrial chain. Five-year in-depth data collection and analysis revealed that system production efficiency and source efficiency continued increasing since 2008, i.e., when the chain was first formed, at average annual growth rates of 21.01 % and 1.01 %, respectively. In 2011, 64.15 % of the total chlorine input was transformed into final products. That is, as high as 98.50 % of the chlorine inputs were utilized when other by-products were counted. Chlorine loss occurred mostly in the form of chloride ions in wastewater, and the system loss rate was 0.54 %. The metabolic efficiency of chlorine in this case was high, and the chain system had minimal impact on the environment. However, from the perspectives of processing depth and economic output, the case study of a chlor-alkali industrial chain still requires expansion.

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the managers and technicians of the enterprises involved in this research for their valuable participation and data support. Special thanks are extended to Professor Han Shi for his constructive comments and suggestions to improve the quality of the paper, as well as to Dr. Xiaohua Ren and Dr. Li Zhu for their assistance in improving the manuscript.

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  1. School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan, 250199, People’s Republic of China

    Feng Han, Wenfeng Li, Fei Yu & Zhaojie Cui

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  1. Feng Han
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  2. Wenfeng Li
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Correspondence to Zhaojie Cui.

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Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues

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Han, F., Li, W., Yu, F. et al. Industrial metabolism of chlorine: a case study of a chlor-alkali industrial chain. Environ Sci Pollut Res 21, 5810–5817 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-014-2518-3

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