Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • NEWS AND VIEWS

Organic catalyst opens way to energy-efficient chlorine production

The industrial process for making chlorine uses a vast amount of energy globally. An organic catalyst has been developed that could form the basis of a more energy-efficient process, replacing expensive inorganic catalysts.
  1. Thomas Turek

    1. Thomas Turek is at the Institute of Chemical and Electrochemical Process Engineering, Clausthal University of Technology, D-38678 Clausthal-Zellerfeld, Germany.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

Chlorine is required for the manufacture of an enormous variety of products in the chemical industry. Most of this chlorine is made using a process called chlor-alkali electrolysis, which requires energy equivalent to about 1% of worldwide electricity production, and is therefore responsible for huge carbon dioxide emissions. Any improvement in the energy efficiency of the process would thus be of great economic and environmental importance. Writing in Nature, Yang et al.1 report an organic catalyst with extremely high activity and selectivity for chlorine production in the chlor-alkali process, which could help to reduce its energy demands.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 617, 472-474 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-01583-z

References

  1. Yang, J. et al. Nature 617, 519–523 (2023).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Roh, K., Brée, L. C., Perrey, K., Bulan, A. & Mitsos, A. Appl. Energy 255, 113880 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Castelvecchi, D. Nature 611, 440–443 (2022).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Beer, H. B. Improvements in or relating to electrodes for electrolysis. UK Patent GB1,147,442 (1965).

  5. Trasatti, S. Electrochim. Acta 45, 2377–2385 (2000).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Lim, T. et al. Nature Commun. 11, 412 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Janoschka, T. et al. Nature 527, 78–81 (2015).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links