Asahi Kasei launching demonstration trial on rental service for chlor-alkali electrolysis cells in Europe

Asahi Kasei is launching a demonstration trial of a rental service for chlor-alkali electrolysis cells in Europe with Nobian GmbH and LOGISTEED Europe BV. Headquartered in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, Nobian is one of Europe's leading chlor-alkali companies. Headquartered in Gelderland, the Netherlands, LOGISTEED Europe is a leading logistics company with more than 10 sites in 6 countries in Europe. For over 45 years since commercializing its membrane process for chlor-alkali electrolysis in 1975, Asahi Kasei has earned a strong reputation among customers for offering superior operating performance and reliability as a supplier of all technological elements of the process, including ion-exchange membranes, electrolysis cells, electrodes, and plant operation expertise. Global demand for chlor-alkali in 2022 was approximately 100 M tonnes, and Asahi Kasei's chlor-alkali process has been adopted at more than 150 plants in 30 countries as of Nov 2023, with a total capacity of over 30 M tonnes/y converted to 100% caustic soda, making Asahi Kasei a leading global process supplier. The membrane process for chlor-alkali electrolysis produces chlorine, hydrogen, and caustic soda by electrolyzing brine using ion-exchange membranes. It eliminates the need to use environmentally hazardous mercury or asbestos as process materials, and enables greater energy efficiency. The combination of low-voltage membranes and electrolyzers developed with advanced Asahi Kasei technology reduces CO2 emissions by lowering power consumption in the electrolysis process. Prices of precious metals used in electrolysis cells have been rising with increased demand in battery and electronic component applications, and due to the conflict in Ukraine. It is expected that this trend will continue and accelerate as water electrolysis for hydrogen production becomes widespread. The chlor-alkali industry thus faces a challenge for the effective utilization of limited precious metal resources. As one solution, Asahi Kasei has decided to launch a rental service of chlor-alkali electrolysis cells in Europe with Nobian and LOGISTEED Europe as a first step towards realizing a circular economy of precious metals and other metals. When performing maintenance on electrolysis cells, customers of Asahi Kasei's process need to remove the cells to a maintenance site for a certain period of time, during which production is suspended. This is often followed by high-load operation to make up for the lost production once maintenance is completed, resulting in higher electricity costs. Customers can, by renting replacement electrolysis cells from Asahi Kasei when repairing their own equipment, maintain production capacity or benefit from maximal flexibility by using state of art high performing electrodes enabling lower electricity costs. The replacement cells are maintained at Asahi Kasei's certified repair sites after each use, and then reused among multiple customers in Europe. Furthermore, as customers would not need to own and maintain spare cells that are effectively idle assets at most times, the total amount of precious metals used in Europe can be reduced. Original source: Asahi Kasei Corp, website: https://www.asahi-kasei.com/, Copyright Asahi Kasei Corporation 2023.
joint venture; market; patents and technical know-how; research and development; caustic soda; chlor-alkalis; ion exchange membranes; Asahi Kasei; LOGISTEED Europe; [...]