Sodium hypochlorite NaClO

There are two industrially-developed processes for obtaining sodium hypochlorite:

• the chemical process which is the main subject of this text;

• the electrochemical process, in which a sodium chloride solution (brine or seawater) is fed to electrolyzers with or without a separator, generating chlorine at the anode and sodium hydroxide at the cathode. In the case of electrolyzers without separators, hypochlorite is obtained in situ; otherwise, the two reagents are mixed in a specific reactor. This process is characterized by dilute solutions with less than 10 g/l active chlorine.