Chemieanlagenbau Chemnitz GmbH (CAC; Germany) is building a chlor-alkali electrolysis plant for KEM ONE (Lyon, France), Europe’s second largest manufacturer of polyvinylchloride (PVC). The €57-million contract is said to be the largest order of this kind in the history of the Chemnitz-based company.
KEM ONE awarded CAC a contract for the construction of a modern, energy-efficient and environmentally friendly membrane electrolysis plant as a replacement for the existing diaphragm electrolysis plant at the end of 2021. CAC will implement the plant at the Fos-Sur-Mer site in France together with its long-standing Japanese technology partner Asahi Kasei Corp. (Tokyo, Japan) as an EPCm project. Specifically, this means that CAC will be responsible for basic and detail engineering, procurement and supply, site management and commissioning support.
“We are pleased that we were able to convince KEM ONE of our performance capability, flexibility and experience and that we managed to conclude the contract under pandemic conditions”, says Mike Niederstadt, managing director of CAC.
The plant, which is located on the coast of southern France, is to be successively converted to using sea salt as feedstock. This independent raw material supply makes it possible to react more flexibly to any supply bottlenecks in the future. The Fos-sur-Mer plant produces chlorine, caustic soda and hydrogen from salt by means of electrolysis. The chlorine produced is used on site to manufacture vinyl chloride monomer, the basic substance for PVC. This material is flame retardant, insulating and resistant to chemical attack, wear and tear. It is therefore suitable for a wide range of applications in construction, packaging and medical technology.