Chlorine chemistry up close

“Chlorine chemistry” is a term used to describe the broad use of chlorine—not just the element itself, but also chlorine-based compounds—in manufacturing processes. Chlorine may or may not appear in an end product, but it is essential to the manufacture of myriad products.

As bleach destroys germs, at least 95% of it degrades into salty water. Wastewater treatment facilities use bleach to destroy oxygen-robbing contaminants found in sewage, helping to preserve the quality of our nation’s rivers and streams into which the treated wastewater is legally discharged by permit.

Bleach kills a wide range of disease-causing bacteria, viruses, and even parasitic protozoa, making it an effective surface disinfectant to use in homes, hospitals, nursing homes, schools, day cares, and food production facilities.

While chlorine is an element, bleach is a solution of a compound called sodium hypochlorite. It’s essentially “chlorine to go”—a convenient solution for destroying germs. Both elemental chlorine and liquid bleach are effective “germ busters.”

Chlorine destroys disease-causing germs in raw, natural, water. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requires treated tap water to contain a detectable (residual) level of chlorine to protect water from recontamination as it flows from the treatment plant to consumers’ taps. Chlorine is the most commonly used drinking water disinfectant in the world.

When salt combines with water and electricity is applied to that solution, chlorine is released. This is known as the “chlor-alkali process.”

Chlorine is one of the most abundant, naturally-occurring chemical elements on Earth, and is present in soils, minerals, plants and animals. . Seawater is a huge reservoir of dissolved chloride, weathered from the continents and transported to the oceans via the Earth’s streams, rivers, and groundwater.

It has powerful disinfectant qualities that come from its ability to bond with and destroy the outer surfaces of germs like bacteria and viruses. Chlorine is also essential for the manufacturing of polyvinyl chloride (PVC or vinyl), top-selling pharmaceuticals, crop protection chemicals, electronics, and much more.

In 1774, Swedish pharmacist Carl Wilhelm Scheele placed drops of hydrochloric acid onto a piece of manganese dioxide and saw a greenish-yellow gas form.

In 1810, that greenish-yellow gas was proven to be an element by English chemist Sir Humphrey Davy, who created the name “chlorine” from the Greek word “khloros,” meaning greenish-yellow.

Chlorine is a chemical element represented by the symbol “Cl.” It’s used to produce thousands of essential products ranging from drinking water disinfectants to solar panels to knee joint replacements.