![]() ![]() Only a small percentage of the chlorine produced worldwide is utilized in water treatment supplies in the United States, 6% of all the chlorine produced domestically is used for the purposes of treating water (White, 1999). In its gaseous and liquid forms, chlorine is commonly used to inactivate microbial pathogens found in drinking water supplies. In its liquid and solid forms, chlorine is a powerful oxidizing, bleaching, and disinfecting agent. It is also widely used as a bleaching agent in the manufacture of pulp and paper in bleaching textiles and fabrics in the manufacture of pesticides, adhesives, and pharmaceuticals for drinking and swimming water disinfection for the sanitation of industrial and sewage wastes and in the degassing of aluminum metal (Curlin et al., 1991). The major uses of chlorine are in the manufacture of chlorinated organic chemicals (e.g., vinyl chloride monomer, carbon tetrachloride, perchloroethylene, 1,1,1-trichloroethane, and chlorobenzenes), non-chlorinated organic chemicals (e.g., propylene oxide and glycols), and chlorinated inorganic chemicals (e.g., sodium hypochlorite, hydrochloric acid, and hypochlorous acid). Chlorine gas is considered to be slightly soluble in water: 14.6 g/L at 0☌ (U.S. ![]() As chlorine gas, it is greenish yellow, 2.5 times as heavy as air (3.2 g/L at 0☌ and 101.3 kPa), and extremely irritating to mucous membranes (White, 1999). Cl 2 solidifies at -101.5☌ and boils at -34.0☌ at standard atmospheric pressure (Connell, 1996 White, 1999). Once produced, it is collected, purified, compressed, and cooled it is then stored and shipped as a pressurized liquefied gas. Molecular chlorine (Cl 2) does not exist naturally, but can be produced industrially either by the electrolysis of sodium chloride dissolved in water or by the hydrogen chloride oxidation process (Connell, 1996 White, 1999). Chloride ion is abundant in nature and necessary to most forms of life, including humans. Most chloride salts are soluble in water, so solid chloride is usually found in abundance only in dry climates or deep underground. Chloride makes up much of the salt dissolved in the oceans (about 1.9% of the mass of seawater). In nature, chlorine is found only as the combined chloride ion (Cl -), with a valence of -1 (White, 1999). Chlorine is a chemical element (symbol Cl) belonging to the halogen family, with an atomic weight of 35.457 (White, 1999).
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