Association “RusChlor” organized and held on April 17 through 18, 2018 on the premises of five-star Moscow hotel Baltschug Kempinski at the hotel’s conference hall its twelfth in a row International Scientific and Technological Conference “Chlorine and its Derivatives 2018” hereinafter referred to as the “Conference”. In close cooperation with JSC “National Chlorine Safety Centre”, Association "RusChlor" organized, convened, and held the Conference quite in line with the deep-rooted tradition and with the joint assistance of Ministry of Industry and Trade, Federal Service for Ecological, Technological, and Atomic Supervision of the Russian Federation, Russian Chemists Union, and Russian Water & Wastewater Association.

There were participating in the Conference more than 130 people representing 77 legal units including all the 14 Russian chlor-alkali plants that collectively make up the set of the full-members in RusChlor, which makes the Conference the biggest recent event of its kind. There were representatives of the water treatment plants, engineering companies, equipment and material vendors, transporter companies, producers and/ or users of the chlorine tank containers who were residing and/ or operating in Russia, Germany, Italy, France, Belgium, the United States of America, United Kingdom, Japan, China, or India on the Conference’s attendee list.

There were tackled the following major themes at the Conference:

• Production of chlorine and its derivatives in Russia and abroad.
• Designing the chlor-alkali facilities under the Best Available Techniques' paradigm.
• Equipment for use by the chlor-alkali industry.
• The problems that are encountered in bulk transportation of the liquid chlorine.
• Modern technologies in application to both the production and use of the chlorine-bound disinfectants.

President of Russian Chemists Union Mr. Semyonov delivered the words of welcome to the Conference’s attendees.

In his turn, Executive Director of Association “RusChlor” Mr. Boris Yagud presented to the participants in the conference a report on the major lines along which the RusChlor’s all activity has been unfolding from the early 2017 through the early 2018. In so doing Mr. Yagud has first mentioned  the important fact that there entered into the legal force on April 18, 2017 the newly amended Federal Rules and Regulations for Industrial Safety “Safety Rules for Production of Chlorine and Chlorine-containing Substances” (codenamed FRRIS – 554) having been prepared in the reporting period by Association “RusChlor” in close cooperation with both Federal Service for Ecological, Technological, and Nuclear Supervision of the Russian Federation (ROSTEKHNADZOR) and the industry in the Russian Federation. The amendments were first approved by the ROSTEKHNADZOR’s Order No. 364 of September 18. 2017.

Another important line of the RusChlor’s activity was made up in the reporting period by the participation of RusChlor in cooperation with the governmental body of BAT Bureau on the one hand and the industrial facilities, on the other hand, in development of the informational-and-technical reference handbook on Best Available Techniques, hereinafter referred to as the “BAT”. The reference book codenamed “ITS 34-2017” is expected to be introduced into the legal force next year under the title of “Production of other basic inorganic chemicals”.

Mr. Yagud has also underlined to the listeners such an important line of the RusChlor's activity as cooperation with Moscow Non-Commercial Partnership “Association ‘Neftegazkhimproekt” having been established with the direct assistance of RusChlor. The importance of that cooperation is accounted for by the mere fact that last year Association “Neftegazkhimproekt” was granted by Federal Service for Ecological, Technological, and Nuclear Supervision of the Russian Federation, hereinafter referred to as the “ROSTEKHNADZOR”, an official right to issue under a proper Self-Regulating Organization such the permits for the design engineering works that should be recognized by the Government.

Association “RusChlor” continued last year with its efforts to mitigate the acute problems felt in transportation of the liquid chlorine over the Russian Federation territory. In so doing Association “RusChlor” tried hard to simultaneously advance along the following two radically different directions:

• RusChlor tried to bring the design of both the railroad tanker cars of series 15-1556-03 being produced by the Russian railroad car manufacturing companies and the innovative new generation railroad tanker cars being designed at that time into compliance with the requirements of aforementioned rules FRRIS–554;
• RusChlor did its best in negotiating with various relevant governmental bodies for extension of the operational lifetime for the chlorine railroad tanker cars that were being already in use.

It is also worth noticing in this connection that driven by a shift in markets RusChlor investigated in the reporting period the feasibility of such bulk transportation of the liquid chlorine over rail in the Russian Federation that the chlorine transported should be loaded into the tank containers having already been mounted onto a railway platform car rather than tanker-cars. In so doing the RusChlor’s investigation mostly zeroed in on the following two major points of interest:

• the general design of a suitable tank container including the design of its valves;
• the design of such a loading/ unloading system that should be capable to service the tank containers considered.

Association “RusChlor” also continued providing services on certification of the technical devices under voluntary certification system “RusChlorCert” in the reporting period.

At this point the rapporteur elaborated a little further on the participation of Association “RusChlor” in three international conferences in the reporting period.

On March 28 through 29, 2017 Association “RusChlor" held its Eleventh in a row annual International Scientific and Technological Conference “Chlorine and its Derivatives 2017” which was devoted to the problems faced in production and transportation of chlorine and its derivatives as well as to the problems linked to the new equipment, raw commodities, construction materials, and technologies used in the chlor-alkali industry.

There was conducted on November 15, 2017 International Conference “Pressing Issues of the Chlor-alkali Industry” in Moscow. The event was consequentially organized and held in Russia for the first time ever by the World Chlorine Council in cooperation with Association “RusChlor”. There were considered the following themes at the conference:

• Plausible hazard assessment under the supposition of a large-scale release of chlorine.
• Foreign practice in providing for safety in transportation of chlorine.
• Optimal practices of converting the mercury cell electrolysis technologies into the membrane electrolysis ones.

Association “RusChlor” participated in the Tenth Jubilee Technology Symposium and Exhibition held by Euro Chlor in Berlin on May 16 through 18, 2017. There were considered such issues at the Symposium as development of the new equipment, conversion of the mercury cell facilities into the ones employing the membrane electrolysis technology, and the energy-effective production processes.

In the end of his presentation Mr. Yagud briefed the listeners on the cooperation of Association “RusChlor” with Ministry of Industry and Trade, Chamber of Commerce of the Russian Federation, Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, and Russian Chemists Union aimed at mitigating the problems faced by the chlor-alkali industry.

Chairman of the Board of Directors of Moscow LLC “NIKOCHEM” Mr. Michael Baranov made a presentation featuring the contemporary trends in the development of the Russian chlor-alkali industry. In so doing Mr. Baranov briefed the attendees on the output indices movement dynamics in regard to the gaseous chlorine and caustic soda estimated over the period spanning the years 2007 and 2017. He also did the same in regard to PVC and the period of time spanning the years 2011 and 2017. Mr. Baranov also informed the attendees on that compared to the same parameters of the year 2016 the last year's growth index for the gross output amounted to 104.3 per cent in the Russian chemical industry against the background of rather a sharp drop in the market capacity for the commodity chlorine coupled with a fifteen percent rise in the output of the vinyl chloride polymers and other halogenated olefins.

The rapporteur also outlined to the listeners the analysis of the current state of the chlor-alkali industry. In so doing he spoke of such the industry's production companies as JSC "Bashkir Soda Company", LLC “RVL”, JSC “Kaustik”, and JSC “NIKOMAG” with more details. In particular there was shown to the Conference’s attendees in Mr. Baranov’s presentation the import and export behavior in regard to such end products as aqueous caustic soda, other PVC plasticized, and caustic soda in solid state for the period of time spanning the years 2015 and 2017.

In what followed, the rapporteur briefed the listeners on the chlor-alkali industry’s both current development trends and stubbornly persistent problems including the ones linked to transportation of the liquid chlorine. In so doing Mr. Baranov outlined to the listeners the changes that if they had been made to the structure of the Russian economy, would allegedly have helped the chlor-alkali industry boom.

In particular, the rapporteur stressed: “Neither the Technical Rules’s fundamentals, nor general principles of the ecology protection, nor mechanisms of introduction into practice of the Best Available Techniques, nor the Chemical Safety fundamentals can be adequately determined without having aligned all that with the frame of a single industrial policy of the state in the first place. All the aforesaid good intentions would bring about more risks and losses than profit if they were implemented otherwise.

By the same token, the aforementioned industrial policy is supposed to create both the incentives and modalities that are necessary for the industrial production growth acceleration along the lines determined by the requirements set up by the aforementioned technical rules and ecological concerns so that the growth should pursue the major interests of both the state and society.

On the other hand though, if only the lines of activity are both determined and enforced subject to creating neither the abovesaid incentives nor the abovesaid modalities beforehand, the growth would be subdued not even speaking of any considerable modernization”.

Director General of the Chlorine Chemistry Department hereinafter referred to as the “CCD” at American Chemistry Council Ms. Judith Nordgren having kindly accepted for the second time the RusChlor's invitation to participate in the association's this year's annual international conference made a presentation outlining both the current state and future perspectives of the US chlor-alkali industry. In particular, Ms. Nordgren featured in her presentation the steep rise in investments into the American chemical industry that was driven by the so called “Shale Revolution” unfolding in the US. In so doing Ms. Nordgren proved her thesis by analysis of the relationship between the competitivity of the national petrochemical industry and the market price of the natural gas.

 Ms. Nordgren also briefed the attendees to the Conference on the amendments to the US Chemical Safety legislation that had been lately adopted so that there should be gradually introduced the risk assessment approach into the legal practice linked to the so called “Priority Substances” in the US. She also informed the listeners about rather a big share of the chlorine produced under the diaphragm electrolysis in the overall annual output of chlorine in the US. In so doing Ms. Nordgren underlined to the listeners that so called “diaphragm chlorine” had been produced in the US with the use of the chrysotile asbestos imported from Brazil, in connection with which she notified the listeners on that the economic turnover of asbestos was being heavy-handedly regulated in both Brazil and Canada.

In speaking on the problems faced in transportation of chlorine over rail in the US Ms. Nordgren briefed the listeners on the rather hot discussion that was unfolding in the US about whether it was worth phasing out the obsolete railroad tanker cars there or not. She notified the listeners in that connection on that if the phaseout had been introduced into practice, it would have driven approximately 7000 such chlorine tanker cars out of use. Among other interesting things Ms. Nordgren briefed the listeners on the various ways that exist in the US for the CCD to inform the society on the important role that the chlorine chemistry was playing in the everybody's everyday life. Further on Ms. Nordgren informed the attendees to the Conference on the weighted distribution of the American chlor-alkali industry products over ways to consume them. In so doing she also informed the listeners on the so called "consumers benefit” calculated for the various ways that exist in the US and Canada for the consumers to use those products.

In wrapping up her presentation Ms. Nordgren reminded the listeners about the incoming sesquicentennial jubilee of discovery by Dmitrij Mendeleev of his famous periodic table of elements. In so doing she underlined to the listeners the invaluable role that the discovery had been playing in the progressive development of the civilization.

Deputy Chief Engineer in Ecology at JSC "Kaustik" Mr. Igor' Poddubnyij made at the Conference a presentation devoted to development of the aforementioned informational-and-technical reference handbook on Best Available Techniques codenamed “ITSZ34-2017” and entitled “Production of other basic inorganic chemicals” hereinafter referred to as the “Reference Book ITSZ34-2017 BAT”. The point is that the rapporteur had directly participated in development of the document.

Mr. Poddubnyij notified the listeners that Reference Book ITSZ34-2017 BAT had been officially approved by Order of Federal Agency on Technical Regulation and Metrology on December 15, 2017 so that the document should be introduced into the legal force on July 01, 2018. Further on Mr. Poddubnyij underlined to the listeners that upon its introduction into the legal force, Reference Book ITSZ34-2017 BAT should be considered the foundation of the process of introduction of changes into the legal, normative, and regulatory framework supposed to be governing the field of environmental management. Mr. Poddubnyij also stressed in that connection that all the future technological norms aimed at regulating the said field of activity would be developed on the base of Reference Book ITSZ34-2017 BAT. He also notified the listeners on that the Reference Book in question was in its essence a standardization document because it had been developed in compliance with both the requirements and terminology set up by the national standards governing the field of Best Available Techniques.

Further on the rapporteur outlined to the listeners the Reference Book’s field of application including in regard to the production of chlorine, sodium hypochlorite, and calcium hypochlorite. In so doing Mr Poddubnyij displayed to the listeners the relationships that existed between the Reference Book considered and its analogs both regional and international. Among other important things linked to the Reference Book Mr. Poddubnyij mentioned the positive experience that had been gathered in collecting the necessary data and the vital role that Association “RusChlor” had played in this by digging out the raw information about production of chlorine under various electrolytic technologies.

Mr. Poddubnyij also represented to the listeners the structure of Refernce Book ITSZ34-2017 BAT. In so doing he described in more details the document’s sections devoted to the chlor-alkali production process. In particular the narrator underlined to the listeners that from the environmental regulation point of view the most important part of the Reference Book was made up by its paragraph “Current rates of both emission of pollutants into the environment and consumption of resources under each of the production process/ technology applied”.

In wrapping up his presentation Mr. Poddubnyij stressed that even if a production facility employed such a technology that was named in the Reference Book as BAT, there would be conducted for that facility an audit aimed at estimating for a set of parameters supposed to characterize the optimality of the use of the technology the difference between the values that were stipulated for the parameters in the Reference Book for the technology in question on the one hand and the parameters that were measured in the real application of the technology at the aforementioned production facility, on the other hand. Mr. Poddubnyij also underlined to the listeners that the said audit would result in a so called expert assessment of the extent to which the technology employed at the facility is really a BAT. At this point of his presentation Mr. Poddybnyij attracted the attention of the listeners to the important fact that such an expert assessment had been made an integral part of the official procedure under which the issuance of the so called “Integrated Environmental Permit” hereinafter referred to as the “IER” would be mulled for all such production facilities that each would be at the moment of decision making definitely both having a negative impact on the ecology and officially registered as the “First Category Facility”. The procedure of obtaining IEP is supposed to become obligatory on January 01, 2019 for the first three hundred ones of those production facilities in the Russian Federation that on the said date will be officially listed as those having the most negative impact on the ecology.

 

Deputy Technology Director of LLC “PHTI ‘Polikhimservis” Dmitrij Sazanov made a presentation featuring the experience gathered by his company in designing the chlor-alkali industry projects on the condition that all the initial design data called the “basic designs” should be initially developed by the foreign engineering companies. In so doing the rapporteur named to the listeners all the basic legal and normative documents determining the following essentials:

• requirements to the scope and content of both the project documentation and initial design data;
• advices to be presumably followed by a customer in the customer’s drawing up the contract with a foreign partner for development of the basic engineering (initial design data);
• minimum set of requirements to the scope and content of the basic engineering project (initial design data).

Among other important things Mr. Sazanov briefed the attendees to the Conference on the experience worked out by his company in works on filling the gaps in the foreign companies’ basic design project documentation that had been lacking, for instance, the following essentials:

• process mass balance;
• data on the physical/ chemical properties of certain substances involved into the technological process;
• data on the heat effects of certain chemical reactions;
• recommendations in environment protection including the effluents neutralization and deactivation of waste both liquid and solid.

Further on Mr. Sazanov gave to the listeners an example of how the Russian regulatory requirements could turn out much tougher than the basic engineering design solutions to the extent that relates to at least the requirements to operations on chlorine and the chlorine containing products. The rapporteur also notified the listeners on that there had been encountered difficulties in using the foreign-made equipment in the industry. He said that the more sophisticated and off-standard the equipment in question had been, the more severe difficulties had arisen in the aspects of expenses and/ or manufacturing such the domestically made equipment that should be capable of functioning at the juncture with that foreign-made one.

Mr. Sazanov also mentioned problems that had been allegedly triggered off by the following factors:

• necessity to select such Russian-made analogs that could be possible to substitute for the original foreign-made construction materials;
• noncompliance of the basic engineering project with the construction site’s environmental conditions’ requirements;
• too small construction site;
• inadequate energy supply;
• lack of such Russian normative documents (GOST, TR etc.) that are to be governing the turnover, handling, and use of both the raw materials being de-facto used and marketable end-products;
• either lack, or inadequacy, or imperfection of the Russian translation of the basic engineering design documents etc.

It is worth mentioning in particular the following presentations that were made at the Conference among those grouped into a single block of themes entitled in the Conference’s programme “Design Engineering with Due Regards for the Best Available Techniques Paradigm”:

• “Technical Compliance – a key for increasing efficiency of international projects in Russia” delivered by Ms. Julia Krause on behalf of ALPHA Consulting GmbH, Germany;
• “Challenges of the Conversion Projects during Commissioning and Start Up” delivered by Mr. Andreas Buecker on behalf of Chemieanlagenbau Chemnitz GmbH, Germany;
• “Energy saving solutions with Electrolyzer and Membrane technologies” delivered by Mr. Yuichiro Tanaka on behalf of Asahi Kasei Chemicals Corporation, Japan;
• “Nuberg’s Success in Chlorine & Derivatives Industry” delivered by Mr. Arun Singh Tyagi on behalf of Nuberg Engineering Ltd., India;
• “New chlor-alkali industrial projects to be carried out in the Russian Federation” delivered by Mr. Zhou Jianguo on behalf of BlueStar (Beijing) Chemical Machinery Co., Ltd., Beijing, China;
• and “De Nora’s Best Available Technology for Recoating and Refurbishing of Electrodes” delivered by Mr. Raffaello Bertin on behalf of Dе Nora Italy S.r.l. , Italy.

Ms. Julia Krause, ALPHA Consulting GmbH

Mr. Andreas Buecker, Chemieanlagenbau Chemnitz GmbH

Mr. Yuichiro Tanaka, Asahi Kasei Chemicals Corporation

Mr. Arun Singh Tyagi, Nuberg Engineering Ltd.

Mr. Zhou Jianguo, BlueStar (Beijing) Chemical Machinery Co., Ltd.

Mr. Raffaello Bertin, Dе Nora Italy S.r.l.

In the course of the Conference's unfolding there were also featured to the attendees to it the following state-of-the-art equipment, technologies, and services offered to the chlor-alkali industry:

• the stop valves designed by French producer “descote S.a.S.” to function in both contact with chlorine and compliance with the Euro Chlor standards;
• the bellows-sealed valves offered by Indian producer “Bell-O-Seal Valves Pvt. Ltd.”;
• safety control systems “EMOS” offered by German company “R2 Intelligent Technologies GmbH” to provide for the safe and economic operation of the membrane electrolyzers;
• the new, state-of-the-art technologies for synthesizing the hydrochloric acid and lining the chlor-alkali production equipment up with PTFE.POLYFLURON^® offered by two German companies called correspondingly “SGL Carbon GmbH” and “SGL Group Dr. Schnabel GmbH”;
• the industrial pipework systems manufactured out of the plastic materials and offered by a Moscow LLC “Aliaxis Utilities and Industry”;
• the enamel-lined equipment offered by German company “Thaletec GmbH” and indian company “Swiss Glascoat Equipments”;
• the maintenance, recondition, and repair services offered by Russian company LLC “ProcessTechEngineering” for the enamel-lined equipment;
• the construction materials manufactured out of the thermally expanded graphite that Russian company LLC “Sealur” offers to apply to the tasks of sealing-off the equipment designed to process the chlorine-containing working substances.

Mr. Gaetan Di Pietra, descote S.a.S.

Mr. Rajesh Gandikota, “Bell-O-Seal Valves Pvt. Ltd.”

Mr. Helmut Lademann, R2 Intelligent Technologies GmbH

Mr. Gerhard Daniel Hoff, SGL Carbon GmbH

Mr. Jürgen Steinmetz, SGL Group Dr.Schnabel GmbH.

Mr. Anton Babichev, LLC “Aliaxis Utilities and Industry”

Ms. Galina Golombek, LLC “ProcessTechEngineering“ 

 Mr. Dmitrij Smirnov, LLC “Sealur”

There were repeatedly raised questions at the Conference that were linked to the problems that had been faced in the bulk transportation of liquid chlorine over rail. That was exactly the case for Moscow JSC “Infotech-Baltika M” and Byelorussian JSC “Osipovichi transport engineering works”. Their representatives made consequentially presentations at the Conference in tackling almost the same problems out of those that were being encountered in bulk transportation of the liquid chlorine over rail with the railroad tanker-cars or tank-containers.

Mr. Dmitriy Samarkin, JSC “Infotech-Baltika M”

Andrew Lutsik, JSC “Osipovichi transport engineering works”

 

All the second day of the Conference was devoted to solely the application of the modern technologies to the safe production and use of the chlorine-bound disinfectants.

 

In the opening the Conference’s second day Scientific Secretary of the Technological-and-Research Council at Russian Water & Wastewater Association Mr. George Samburskij represented to the attendees a comprehensive factor evaluation model aimed at estimating the key-factors determining both the state and functioning of the utility and drinking water supply system.

In so doing the rapporteur stirred the listeners’ attention to the aforesaid model’s fundamental axioms:

• the current Russian legislation’s peculiarities that were affecting the water treatment field of activity;
• the performance targets that were being applied to evaluation of the efficiency of organization of the utility and drinking water supply system;
• classification of the health risks that were supposed to stem from the chemicals present in the tap water;
• a list of the health risks that were supposed to be incurred by a considerable drop in the tap water quality subject to the risks’ being estimated under the criteria that had been introduced into the legal practice by the Order No. 1204 issued by Russian Agency for Health and Consumer Rights so that the continuance of the exposure should be considered to amount to 10 years.

 

The presentation made by Ms. Judith Nordgren of American Chemistry Council was devoted to a review of the water treatment technologies that were in use in the US.

In so doing she began from notifying the listeners on the peculiar fact that there had been initiated the application of chlorine to the water treatment tasks in the US as early as in 1908 which resulted in a sharp drop in the annual number of deaths caused by the water contaminated with the sewer wastewater. Further on, Ms. Nordgren presented to the listeners both the historical and statistical data on the following key water treatment parameters:

• tap water consumption rate for the US;
• major stages of the water treatment technology process;
• set of the disinfecting compounds being in use;
• comparative analysis of the intensities of the practical use of various disinfection technologies and disinfectants as of the years 1998 and 2017;
• issues triggered of by the disinfectants’ trace quantities' presence in the tap water;
• current legislation governing the field of activity being considered.

 

Executive Director of Association “RusChlor” Mr. Boris Yagud made a presentation devoted to the analysis of the Russian markets of sodium and calcium hypochlorite.

In so doing Mr. Yagud briefed the listeners on the following essentials of the said markets:

• the production facilities that were manufacturing the liquid chlorine in the Russian Federation;
• the output indices movement in regard to the liquid chlorine transported in bulk and as packaged into both the ton-containers and cylinders over rail;
• the output indices movement in regard to calcium hypochlorite, including the said product’s both the volume of import from abroad and possible import substitution sites within the territory of the Russian Federation;
• the production facilities that were manufacturing the sodium hypochlorite in the Russian Federation, which included the output indices movement and data on the annual bleach output;
• the output indices movement in regard to the sodium hypochlorite that was being manufactured at the facilities of the pulp and paper industry rather than the chlor-alkali one;
• the relationship that existed between the imports and exports of sodium hypochlorite.

The rapporteur compared the annual amounts of both the chlorine and sodium hypochlorite that were consumed in water treatment in the Russian Federation to the annual amounts of the same substances analogously consumed in the United States of America. In what followed, Mr. Yagud briefed the listeners on the peculiar features of both the sodium hypochlorite and liquid chlorine in their comparison against the background of a few notorious accidents involving the sodium hypochlorite including the most recent one that had happened at town Myski in Kemerovo Region.

Further on, Mr. Yagud compared the use of the gaseous chlorine with the use of sodium hypochlorite as the main water treatment disinfectant under the criteria of both the expenses and availability calculated for both the alternatives. In wrapping up his presentation Mr. Yagud briefed the listeners on various technologies and equipment types currently used in manufacturing the sodium hypochlorite.

There was stirred up rather a hot discussion at the Conference by the presentation made there by Chief Research Fellow at Moscow Water Problems Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences Mr. Oleg Rozenthal. The point is that in making his presentation the presenter featured to the listeners the regulatory quality requirements that must be obligatorily met by the sodium hypochlorite used in the water treatment in Russia and abroad. In so doing Mr. Rozenthal zeroed in on rather a fresh piece of the Russian legislation governing the said field of activity, namely a new standard codenamed GOST R No. 57568-2017 and entitled “Water Solution of the Sodium Hypochlorite: Technical Conditions".

St. Petersburg LLC “NPK ‘EKOLOG” made a presentation at the Conference of the equipment offered by the company for application to the water treatment tasks.

It was claimed that the company was both producing and marketing the electrolyzers ranging from 1.25 to 40 kgm/hr in their performance as measured in sodium hypochlorite expressed as the so called “available chlorine”. In his presentation the rapporteur also compared various chlorine-bound reactants in the efficiency of their use as disinfectants, which resulted in the conclusion made by Mr. Itkin that the low concentration sodium hypochlorite should be considered the optimal choice of all the alternatives considered. In wrapping up his presentation the rapporteur claimed that the technology that had been developed by the rapporteur’s company had made it possible to be manufacturing the bleach in such a way as to set up each of the output bleach's properties within rather a wide range depending on the actual requirements on the spot so that the hypochlorite manufactured by one and the same line of production equipment could be applied depending on the aforesaid settings up to the task of decontamination of the tap water, wastewaters, or recycle water as well as to the task of the biofouling reduction in regard to the power supply systems’ cooling circuits.

 

Chief Technologist of Moscow LLC “Holding Company ‘Laboratory of Electrochemical Technologies” Ms. Dina Romanova made a presentation of at the Conference.

The presentation was devoted to the modular, skid-mounted units and plants offered by the rapporteur’s company for production of both chlorine and sodium hypochlorite under the technologies of both the membrane electrolysis and the diaphragm one. In so doing the company-made plants codenamed “AKVAKHLOR-DIAFRAGMA” and “AKVAKHLOR-MEMBRANA” were claimed by the rapporteur to be suitable for application at the water supply and sewerage sites. The rapporteur also said in that connection that in the case considered the output products of the plants would be either chlorine and caustic soda or sodium hypochlorite. She also claimed that the content of the sodium hypochlorite in the end product in the case that was being featured should fall within the range spanning 120 and 170 grams of the so called “available chlorine” per a liter of the product.

 

Manager of the Chlor-alkali Division of Italian company “De Nora Italy S.r.l” Mr. Raffaello Bertin represented to the attendees to the Conference the modular, skid-mounted chlor-alkali plants being marketed by his company.

Engineering Manager of Irkutsk LLC “HYPROCHLOR Ltd” Mr. Andrew Zaijtsev made a presentation of the production line that had been introduced into commercial practice on the premises of Moscow JSC “WTE YUGO-VOSTOK” for production of the highly concentrated sodium hypochlorite there pursuant to Executive Order No. 2144-RP of September 27, 2007 of the Government of Moscow. The said production line’s design capacity was claimed by Mr. Zaijtsev to have amounted to 50000 metric tons of the liquid sodium hypochlorite whose content of the available chlorine ranged from 175 to 189 grams per a liter of the product.

Mr. Zaijtsev also notified the listeners on that the production line had first been successfully put into commercial operation and then reached the design capacity production level in 2015 when the demand for the tap water had considerably fallen in the Moscow Region, which had made the plant’s managers take the decision about a considerable extension of the output products nomenclature. Pursuant to that decision there had been introduced into practice a reconstruction project at the facility within the period from July 2015 to August 2016. In wrapping up his presentation Mr. Zaijtsev notified the listeners on that as of the date of the Conference the facility was annually producing 22000 metric tons of sodium hypochlorite along with some quantity of both the hydrochloric acid of high purity and caustic soda.

 

Bleach Shop Foreman at LLC “SEVKHIMPROM” Mr. Eugene Vyshlov represented to the attendees to the Conference a review of the company’s production facility designed to manufacture the sodium hypochlorite under the membrane electrolysis technology and with the use of the state-of-the-art equipment. In so doing Mr. Vyshlov particularly featured the equipment’s friendliness to the ecology against the background of the equipment’s sophistication which had made it possible to vary the end product’s content of the available chlorine without causing any harm to the ecology.

Director of LLC “SPETSMASH Group” Mr. Eugene Novichkov made a presentation of the practical use of the membrane electrolyzers at the water-disinfection plants.

Chief Specialist at Moscow LLC “National Chlorine Safety Centre" Mr. Nicolas Mislavskij made a presentation at the Conference aimed at featuring the modular, portable package units for production of the highly concentrated sodium hypochlorite on the spot out of the chlorine and caustic soda transported from offsite.

Sales Manager of Moscow LLC “SIMONA RUS” Mr. Maxim Efremov made at the Conference a presentation devoted to the issue of application of thermoplastics to the chemical industry practices.

In so doing Mr. Efremov stirred the attention of listeners to the peculiar fact that having been established as early as in the year 1857, his company was keeping products’ nomenclature as wide as consisting of more than 3000 product names as of the date of the Conference. The said nomenclature included among other things the pipes, fittings and fixtures, valves, and in-process materials. Among the construction materials used by the company in the production process Mr. Efremov named polyethylene, polypropylene, PVC, Poly Vinylidene Difluoride, and many other plastics.

 

Mr. Alberto Sangali made to the Conference on behalf of Italian engineering company FRIEM S.P.A a presentation devoted to the energy efficiency issues linked to the DC power supply systems employed in the chlor-alkali industry.

The presenter’s company's core business is made up by both manufacturing and marketing the power converters in such a way as to comprehensively fit the customer specification The rapporteur in particular reminded to the listeners about rather a well-known fact that having been the main consumers of electrical power of a chlor-alkali production facility, the current power supply sources must be tightly controlled at the facility under the energy efficiency criteria in the first place. In wrapping up his presentation Mr. Sangali exemplified a possible solution of the acute problems faced in practical implementation of the aforementioned control process by presenting such a power supply source of those featured by the company that could convert a medium voltage alternating current into the low voltage direct current.

Director General of Moscow LLC “INKRAM” Mr. Alekseij Mikhaijlov presented to the attendees to the Conference the role that gasometry was taking on in both the production and circulation of the sodium hypochlorite.

In so doing Mr. Mikhaijlow first briefed the listeners on the requirements that had been imposed by the regulators on the control process employed in manufacturing the sodium hypochlorite depending on whether it was manufactured under a chemical or electrical chemical technique. Further on, Mr. Mikhaijlow stirred the listeners’ attention to a few samples of the company’s featured products including the gas detectors of series “IP” and “ISM”, gas analytical system of series “SKVA-03”. The rapporteur also briefed the listeners on the peculiarities of ways to make the practical use of the gas analysers in serving the production lines of various production capacity comply with the requirements of Federal Law No. 102-FZ of June 26, 2008 “on Ensuring the Uniformity of Measurements”. 

Managing Engineer in Disinfection Systems at Moscow LLC “GRUNDFOS” Mr. Alexander Martynov made a presentation at the Conference about both the current operating experience and outlooks for the future use of the low concentration sodium hypochlorite.

In so doing Mr. Martynov demonstrated to the attendees to the Conference in details to a certain extent of relevancy a few samples of the equipment offered by his company for application to the tasks of water treatment. In particular the repporteur featured electrolyzers of series “SELCOPREM” designed to manufacture the aqueous solution of sodium hypochlorite on the spot of its consumption at the production rate ranging within the interval spanning the levels of 145 and merely 45 kgm/hr as measured in available chlorine. Further on Mr. Martynov briefed the listeners on limitations imposed by the rapporteur’s company on the scope and content of the feedstock (i. e., water and salt). He also notified the listeners on the priorities that the company had set up in developing the electrolyzers including both the Single Line Diagram that had been chosen for the technological process and equipment layout. In wrapping up his presentation Mr. Martynov named to the listeners the projects that had been already implemented by the company into the real life.

Deputy Director General of German company “newtec Umwelttechnik GmbH” Mr.Viktor Popov made a presentation to the Conference.

The presentation was devoted to the solutions applicable in on-site production and dosage of the low concentration  (0.8%) sodium hypochlorite.The key lines of the company’s activity are made up by the issues of electrolysis and filtration.There are on the company’s products list such its featured products as “e-disinfector” of the performance ranging within the interval spanning the levels of merely 0.5 to 5.0 g/hr for each module as measured in the available chlorine, mobile portable “BlueBox” of the performance ranging within the interval spanning the levels of merely 30 to 200 g/hr for each module as measured in the available chlorine, and electrolyzers designed to produce the low concentration (0.8%) sodium hypochlorite at the production rate ranging within the interval spanning the levels of merely 1 to 100 kgm/hr for each unit as measured in the available chlorine.There are also manufactured by the company the electrolyzers that are designed to manufacture chlorine.

The Conference’s last presentation was made by Director of Novocheboksarsk LLC “SPE ‘EKOFES” Mr. Leo Fesenko.

The presentation was entitled “Implications for both the environment protection and technological safety parameters of a switch to the use at the chlorination halls of the low concentration sodium hypochlorite produced on the spot under the membrane electrolysis technique”. In so doing Mr Fesenko described to the listeners the fungible electrolyzers of “KHLOREKS” series being both manufactured and marketed by his company. The electrolyzers’ production capacity was said to range within the interval spanning the levels of just 1 and as much as 1000 kgm/day as measured in the available chlorine.

Having been through with the programme, the attendees to the Conference continued with the discourse in the lobby.