Orica - Products

Chlorine ... an essential part of life

Every day we benefit from chlorine and chlorine-based products. It is used in a vast range of products that are pivotal to our standard of living. Chlorine used in water disinfection has been designated as one of the top ten medical discoveries from the past century. Chlorine is proven to be the most effective and economical disinfectant and sanitiser delivering superior performance over alternative technologies. Orica ChlorAlkali sells chlorine as a water disinfectant to water authorities, swimming pools, power stations, and pulp & paper market sectors supported by the Watercare Division.

Orica ChlorAlkali has been meeting your chlorine requirements since the 1920's when former ICI Australia took over operations of a small chlorine manufacturing plant at Yarraville, Victoria. Orica ChlorAlkali's ongoing commitment to the industry is demonstrated by its recent investment of $150 million in new and upgraded state-of-the-art facilities in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. In addition to our own lengthy experience in chlorine production, Orica ChlorAlkali can call upon worldwide technological assistance through membership of The Chlorine Institute Inc., a technical body with world wide membership.

We are committed to ensuring a safe and reliable product delivered to the community and is demonstrated through our product stewardship "cradle to grave" philosophy.

The major applications of chlorine are:

Disinfection of town water supplies. Correct use of chlorine provides very effective protection against the spread of waterborne diseases without producing unpleasant tastes or odours. Our Technical Service personnel can advise on requirements for particular uses.
Treatment of cooling water. Large cooling water installations can suffer expensive failures or losses of efficiency because of the growth of algae, bacteria or even shellfish inside the system. These growths can be readily prevented by a carefully controlled dosage of chlorine.
Treatment of process water. Meatworks and other food processing factories find chlorinated water highly suitable for washing down equipment and carcasses to prevent the build-up of bacterial contamination.
Swimming pool treatment. The technique known as "breakpoint chlorination" provides pool users with water that is sanitary and pleasant for swimming. When eye irritation occurs, or the so-called "chlorine smell" is noticed, it is probable indication that insufficient chlorine has been used. These problems are normally caused by chloramines which are readily destroyed by the addition of more chlorine.
Sewage treatment. Chlorine finds considerable use for disinfection of effluent, prevention of objectionable odours, prevention of corrosion in outfalls and main sewers, prevention of filter blockage, improvement of grease removal and of settling, and the wash-down of equipment.
Industrial effluent treatment. The main use of chlorine in industrial effluent streams is for conversion of highly poisonous cyanide and sulphide wastes into materials which are safe for discharge into the sewer system.
Chemical raw material. Local uses include the bleaching of wood pulp and paper, bleaching of textiles, flour processing, aluminium refining, shrinkproofing wool and the production of weed killers, animal worm drenches and various metal chlorides. Overseas uses include the production of calcium hypochlorite (for swimming pools use), insecticides and insect repellents, chlorinated rubbers and solvents.

How chlorine is manufactured

Orica ChlorAlkali manufactures chlorine by passing an electric current through a purified solution of brine (salt water) in state-of-the-art membrane electrolytic cells, producing caustic soda, chlorine and hydrogen. The membrane process produces chlorine (and other products) of very high purity in an environmentally friendly manner.

Pack Sizes

Orica ChlorAlkali manufactures chlorine in the form of a compressed liquefied gas (chlorine gas) and it's derivative sodium hypochlorite (commonly called liquid pool chlorine). Chlorine gas is sold in bulk in 920 kg drums and 70 kg cylinders. Sodium hypochlorite is sold in bulk and smaller repack sizes through Spectrum Distributors.

Orica ChlorAlkali uses a state-of-the-art, real time container tracking system to manage our chlorine circuit throughout Australia, see Chlorine Container Tracking.

We also continue to make chlorine safe for your workforce and the community through the design and supply of an automatic chlorine valve shutdown system, ChlorGuard®.

Publications (including 'Breakpoint Chlorination of Swimming Pools', 'Fundamentals of Private Swimming Pool Operation', 'Swimming Pool Logbook' and 'Chlorination of Industrial Cooling Water' as well as handbooks, safety wall charts and safety checklists) are available through Orica SureTech.

Chlorine equipment operation, awareness and basic safety training as well as incident investigation, regulatory compliance assessments, safety assessments, installation audits and risk assessments are also available through Chlorine Safeguard.