An ambitious chlor-alkali plant being developed by one of the UAE's largest contracting and manufacturing enterprises will produce chemicals meeting the needs of the strategically important sectors of hydrocarbons and water while also serving as an import substitute.

The $16.5 million Safewater Chemicals LLC plant of Al Jaber Group, which is expected to be completed in the second half of 2003, will uitilise modern, environmentally friendly technologies to produce sodium hypochlorite, hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide in the Industrial City of Abu Dhabi.

These will be produced though an electrolytic process using sodium chloride (salt), water and electricity as the primary feed stocks with subsequent concentration and absorption processes.

Safewater's key markets will be the sectors of oil and gas, water generation/transmission and wastewater as well as companies engaged in certain industrial applications and the commercial segment.

"At present these markets are served by imported products, which are of substandard purity when compared to Safewater products," a company statement said.

"The development of the chlor-alkali plant represents the first step in a diversification programme for Al Jaber Group", said group chairman Obeid Al Jaber. Al Jaber Group is an enterprise with revenues in excess of $500million and employs some 15,000 people.

In addition to contracting and manufacturing, the group is engaged in trading, logistics and general maintenance

In the industrial field, it has a plant each for aluminium extrusion and aluminium fabrication, a foundry plant, a fusion-bonded epoxy-coating rebar plant, a precision engineering factory, a unit for sign fabrication and a filter factory.

The group has assured that Safewater products will be ultra-pure. "The chemical composition of the products will contain significantly less contaminants than current products because of the process being employed in the chlor-alkali plant and the strict purity standards being applied to the feed stocks," it said.

"This ultra-purity of the products promotes the UAE authorities' efforts with regard to environmental protection, especially in the marine environment, where contaminants can very quickly destroy marine life", Al Jaber said. The products produced from the chlor-alkali plant include 32 per cent hydrochloric acid, 25 per cent and 50 per cent caustic soda lye, and 11 per cent and 13 per cent sodium hypochlorite.

Under the electrolytic process Safewater will follow, two feeder streams enter an electrolyser (cell module). One stream is saturated sodium chloride brine, and the other is soft water. Electricity is used to electrolyse the two streams. Brine is placed in contact with the anode, where the chloride is oxidised, and the water is placed in contact with the cathode forming hydrogen and a hydroxide ion.

"The electrolytic process to be employed by Safewater is an environmentally friendly process using a membrane to separate the cell compartments. This process overcomes the health and environmental concerns of earlier mercury- and asbestos-based processes," the company said.

Production of hydrochloric acid is performed in two HCl absorbers. The HCl absorber consists of two concentric tubes through which flow the hydrogen and chlorine vapours at controlled rates, which react in an exothermic process to form hydrochloric vapour. This vapour is then absorbed into soft water. Caustic soda is produced at 25 per cent w/t from the electrolytic process. This solution will be concentrated to 50 per cent w/t using a single-effect evaporator. The evaporator will feature rising and falling film technology.

Safewater has been actively informing potential customers of its plans and products and says the feedback received from them has been very positive. "Safewater will be a competitive and reliable UAE-based supplier for traders, wholesalers and end-users" Al Jaber said.

Al Jaber Group said it was committed to participating in the government's programme of industrialisation of the economy as a leading industrial and contracting enterprise.

"Safewater's chlor-alkali plant achieves this objective on a number of levels. Firstly, the company will represent a local, secure source of chemicals of strategic importance to two essential economic sectors - hydrocarbons and water. These industries are at present reliant on imported products. The project therefore substitutes importation of foreign-produced products with local value-added production.

"Secondly, the plant's technology is a membrane cell-based electrolytic process, which is environmentally friendly - avoiding the use of toxic chemicals such as mercury and asbestos Ñ and replaces the use of hazardous chlorine gas with the safer and more manageable sodium hypochlorite. The use of sodium hypochlorite also improves the rates of disinfection in the nation's drinking water."

The company has appointed world-recognised consultants and vendors for key process technologies.

Atkins will undertake process and detailed engineering. The company was appointed for its local representation and its ability to interface with global organisations to provide the expertise needed to carry out the scope of work.

Ionics Incorporated will supply the membrane cell electrolyser units. An NYSE-listed company and the only one of its kind in the US, Ionics Inc has been a leader in the development of membrane cell technology for over 50 years and has supplied more membrane cell modules than any other company in the world. It has been awarded the design, supply, and commissioning of the electrolytic membrane cell modules and hydrochloric acid absorbers.

Ionics, whose contract is valued at Dh30.2 million ($8.2 million), will outsource the supply of the hydrochloric acid absorbers to SGL Acotec GmbH, which is one of a group of companies collectively known as SGL Carbon Group. SGL is listed on the stock exchanges in Germany and New York.

SGL Carbon is extensively involved in the carbon, graphite and composites industrial sector and in designing and fabricating many applications for customers in the steel, chemicals, energy, semiconductor, glass and ceramics, pharmaceuticals and automotive industries.

French company GEA Kestner has been awarded a Dh2 million contract for the design, supply, and commissioning of the caustic soda evaporator.

Created 100 years ago, GEA Kestner belongs to the mg Technologies Group. Continuous development has enabled the company to maintain its leadership position in the design and installation of many applications calling for evaporation and/or crystallisation techniques. The company has won many significant references in applications for highly corrosive streams processing.

The construction contractor appointed by Safewater for the procurement management, erection and cold commissioning of the chlor-alkali plant was named as Al Jaber-LTA Engineering & Contracting (Alec).

A joint venture between Al Jaber Group and South Africa's Grinaker-LTA, Alec was established in 2000 to leverage the technical expertise of the South African company and the local strength and presence of Al Jaber Group to win projects in the GCC petrochemical sector.