Definition
Caustic soda flakes production , Caustic soda manufacturers: caustic soda or sodium hydroxide as a widely used product that works in almost every industry and is considered as an integral part of production, it is so attractive that if you search for the term “manufacturer” in Google Search for “caustic soda” and you will find hundreds of colorful websites all calling themselves “Caustic Soda Manufacturers”. Some even call themselves the biggest producer! This article is written independently of the claims of any person or website and based solely on the facts in the caustic soda production industry.
Chloralkali units: in this method, caustic soda is produced from salt in electrolyzers, the technical discussion of which is beyond the scope of this article. But it is enough to know that setting up the smallest “chloralkali” unit costs at least twenty million dollars
Chlor-alkali process is one of the industrial processes used for electrolysis of salt (NaCl). This process is used to produce sodium hydroxide or caustic soda.
Usually, in this process, an aqueous solution of sodium chloride (salt water) is used as feed and raw material. Chlorine (chlorine gas), liquid soda and hydrogen are obtained as final products of this process.
Iran’s chloralkali units that produce caustic soda or caustic soda
Simultaneously with the economic development and the wave of movement towards economic self-sufficiency in Iran, in a time frame (late eighties and early nineties), three units started to build chloralkali factories. As its name suggests, the Nirochlor factory was dependent on the Ministry of Energy (which later became a public company and its major shares were purchased by Shasta Company), Pars Chlorine Company in Tabriz with the same origin as Nirochlor Company in 1987 to supply chlorine to water companies. and sewage was established by the Ministry of Energy in Tabriz city. Chloran Chemical Production Company (CCPC) was the only chemical production company that started operating in this field with the investment of the private sector and is now the largest caustic soda producing unit in Iran.
Before the construction of these three plants, the supply of chloralkali products was exclusive to petrochemicals and the government sector, including Shiraz Petrochemical, Arvand, Karoun and Bandar Imam, the only chloralkali units in the country.
The production of caustic soda from salt + water + electricity means a producer from the base, in other words: an independent producer. Why independent? Because they produce their needed liquid caustic soda themselves.
- Advantages:
- 1) They are not dependent on petrochemicals for production. Percolator units mainly supply their liquid profit from Arvand Petrochemical. Therefore, if Arvand Petrochemical enters the annual overhaul period (which usually lasts for one to several months), the production of these units will be stopped or they will resort to other producing companies such as Chloran or Chlor Pars and Nirochlor to provide the liquid profit they need.
- 2) The pricing of produced soda ash is often based on internal components, and sometimes, depending on the conditions of other products, they may sell their caustic soda product below the base price.
- 3) They are often large units that have a diverse product portfolio, and this diversity gives customers the privilege to supply different types of products from one manufacturer and to have flexibility in financial transactions in the product portfolio group.
- 4) Due to the amount of investment and variety of products, they are usually equipped with more equipped laboratories that give more credibility to the quality control results.
Iran’s caustic soda producers: new chloralkali factories include the following. Some of these units only produce liquid caustic soda and do not have the part of flake making and production of caustic soda flakes.
Chloran Chemical Manufacturing Company (private joint stock company)
Chloran chemical production company (private joint stock company) in Semnan, which is well known with the CCPC brand in the countries of the region, especially Turkey. This complex started to be produced in 2015 and with the concentration of the production and headquarters units in the Chloran complex, it was able to eliminate a large part of the problems caused by the lack of coordination between the production and commercial units. Numerous development projects and long-term planning have made this company successful in gaining significant market share in the country as well as regional and international markets.
Nirochlor Company (public shares)
Nirochlor Company (public share) was established in Isfahan and with the initial investment of the Ministry of Energy and the Bank of Industry and Mine, and the operation of this project started in April 2016. The brand of the product is the same as the name of the company, which is famous in Arab countries, especially in Iraq, under the name “Nirou”. Nirochlor has also had a good activity at the international level and its products have sold well in the regional and North African markets.
Chlor Pars (JSC)
Chlor Pars Company (public company) in Tabriz. This factory is one of the first three factories independent of the Ministry of Petroleum and Petrochemicals, which was put into operation in 2017 and two years after Chloran Chemical Production Company. Proximity to Turkey, Iraq and CIS countries has created a good competitive advantage for this company to be effective in the market of neighboring countries. Linguistic affinity has helped in effective communication with the countries of Azerbaijan and Turkey and has caused direct and easy communication between Turkish-speaking businessmen for negotiations.
Pars Kimia Chlor PCC Petrochemical Company
Pars Kimia Chlor PCC Petrochemical Company was put into operation in Shushtar city in 2019. After the construction of the Gotvand dam and the problems caused by the infiltration of salt into agricultural waters, investors and officials were motivated enough to build a large salt consuming unit in the Gotvand region, and this huge factory was launched. Proximity to the water borders and countries on the southern shores of the Persian Gulf and border terminals of Iraq has provided a unique competitive advantage for this company to have an active presence in the markets of Arab countries.
Kimia Chlor Kabodan
Caustic soda flakes production: Kimia Chlor Kabodan Company was opened in 2013 in Urmia Industrial Town No. 3. This company is one of the Kobodan Phosphate companies. This company uses up-to-date machines to supply its products inside and outside the country.
Sadra Electro Mahbod
Caustic soda flakes production: Sadra Electro Mahbod Company is located in Mahmoud Abad Industrial Town of Qom
This company (S.E.M.) was established in 2007 on a land of 30,000 square meters in Mahmoudabad Industrial Town of Qom with the aim of producing liquid chlorine, sodium hydroxide (liquid and powder), hydrochloric acid and sodium hypochlorite.
The products of this company are produced by membrane electrolysis method and now they export their products to some countries while maintaining domestic consumption.
Kimiabon
Kimiabon company is one of the old chloralkali units. Compared to the above factories, it is smaller in scale and has similar technology located in Lia Qazvin industrial town.
- Disadvantages:
- They are expensive to set up
- The production process of chloralkali is complicated (photo above), so it is more difficult to focus on marketing. Therefore, there are many intermediary companies or individuals.
- They insist on their packaging and brand and are usually not flexible in front of special requirements and customer requests.
Flaking units (traditional):
Such industrial units buy liquid caustic soda from petrochemicals (usually Arvand Petrochemical Co.) or other chloralkali units. After the concentration of caustic liquid, it is made into flakes and then pack it in 25 kg bags. In the final section, the chloralkali unit machines have the flaking production section. (concentration process, “flaker” drying and packaging)
Advantages of traditional fracturing units:
- They have low cost and fast setup
- They have a short and easy process (see the diagram below), so they do not have major conflicts from a technical point of view
- Due to the ease of the process, they focus more on marketing
- The small size of the organization makes it easy and fast to establish person-to-person communication and follow up on orders.
- These units usually have more flexibility to change orders or special requirements, such as packaging in bags desired by the customer or marking and coding on the packaging.
Disadvantages of traditional fracturing units:
- Dependence on the supply of feed through petrochemicals, therefore, for any reason, if petrochemicals does not provide liquid caustic soda, production will inevitably stop.
- One of the main factors in calculating the cost price is the price of liquid caustic soda received from petrochemicals.
- Due to the simplicity of setting up and the low cost of the machines, it will be possible to set up unauthorized units outside of the quality supervision of supervisory bodies. It is not far from the mind that in order to make more profit, there will be the possibility of cheating in the final product.
