Mercury
The liquid metal mercury is a catalyst in one of the three chlorine production technologies. Its use in Europe is being phased out by 2020 through a Euro Chlor voluntary agreement.
Mercury export ban and storage
The EU Regulation EC 1102/2008 on the Export Ban and Safe
Storage of Metallic Mercury entered into force on March
15thof this year. The Regulation bans the export of
mercury and imposes a storage obligation of mercury.
Download the EU
Regulation EC 1102/2008 document (PDF) 
The Regulation establishes both permanent and temporary storage
of liquid mercury, possible before such storage could be done it
requires the development of storage criteria for end-of-life
mercury under the Landfill Directive. The Regulation
makes it possible to permanently store liquid mercury in
underground salt mines or hard rock formation with the same level
of safety. This is in line with Euro Chlor's
voluntary agreement on the safe storage of excess mercury which was
officially recognised by the European Commission.
Download the Commission
recommendation document (PDF)
The temporary storage criteria have been proposed by the
Commission and are now discussed by the member states. There is
little interest for our industry for temporary storage. For
Euro Chlor companies it is much more important to have criteria for
permanent storage of end-of-life mercury which is no
longer used within the chlor-alkali industry. An investigation into
the safety of permanent storage of liquid mercury is ongoing in
Germany, but these studies may still take several years before
being finalised.
Euro Chlor member companies therefore continue to look into
other permanent disposal solutions, including stabilized mercury,
following closely the developments offered by various
suppliers.
Euro Chlor continues implementing a voluntary agreement
on phasing out mercury cell technology by 2020. European
producers have about 7,600 tonnes of liquid mercury used by 34
electrolysis plants in 15 countries. These units account today for
31 % of European chlorine capacity.
Chlor-alkali metallic mercury reporting to the Commission
According to the Regulation, the quantities of metallic mercury
on sites have to be reported yearly to the Commission and the
Competent Authorities. Euro Chlor has volunteered to gather the
data from the chlor-alkali sites of the Euro Chlor member companies
in order to facilitate reporting to the Commission.
Euro Chlor has provided, on behalf of all member
companies utilising mercury cell technology, the following
data (situation end of 2009 and 2010):
- best estimate of total amount of mercury still in use in the
chlor-alkali cells
- total amount of metallic mercury stored in the facility.
Download the Total amount of metallic mercury on site 2010
document (PDF).
The data are publicly available on ec.europa.eu.
Documentation
Read more about the safe storage of excess
mercury
The Euro Chlor Position Paper (September
2010) (pdf)
Q & A on Safe Permanent Storage of
Mercury (September 2010 - PDF)
Read more about other mercury issues covered by Euro
Chlor
Chlor-alkali industry's voluntary agreement sufficient to implement
mercury cell technology phase out by
2020 (PDF)
See Mercury emissions documentations below.
Read more about the reduction of global mercury
emissions and use in the chlor-alkali industry
UNEP Global Mercury Programme - The Chlor-Alkali Sector
Partnership (PDF)
Mercury emissions - Individual plant data
In accordance with the Euro Chlor
commitment for openness and transparency on progress in the
sustainability programme, you will find here the individual plant
data for mercury emissions in the European chlor-alkali
sector.
Mercury
emissions per site (2010 - PDF)
Trend of the
mercury emissions (2010 - PDF)
Archives
2009 - 2008 -
2007 - 2006 - 2005 (PDF
documents)
Last update: 03/2012
