Did you know ...
... that there is no PVC without salt?
Every child knows salt is eaten, and at least every car driver knows that salt is spread on the roads. But who knew that salt can also be found in our window frames?
At least indirectly. After all the main element of salt, chlorine, is a major component of polyvinyl chloride or PVC for short. And PVC is a real jack of all trades.
The good thing about PVC: it is extremely stable and resistant to acid, oil and saltwater. That makes it a popular material in the manufacture of pleasure boats.
Most PVC applications, however, can be found nearer to home. Modern window frames, doors, cable conduits, flooring or roller blinds: these days there's a PVC version of all of them. Computer housings and keyboards are also made of this miraculous material, which scientists stumbled upon one hundred years ago while looking for a stackable means of storing the chlorine by-products of caustic soda production.
Today PVC manufacture can be found all over the world, as can the process of electrolysis necessary for its production – i.e. the electronically controlled separation of salt dissolved in water into its components chorine and sodium. Europe's major electrolysis operators include chemical giants such as BASF, Bayer, Solvay and Ineos.
esco sells approximately one third of its solid salt production to electrolysis operators, often
in the form of so-called wet salt, in other words salt containing a maximum of three percent water.
The Dutch company Frisia Zout provides the bulk of this supply.
