Hydrogen Peroxide is a widely used chemical substance for manufacturing bleaching agents, oxidants, and derivatives. It has played a major role as a bleaching agent in fiber dyeing and pulp & paper industries. (Details)
Textile industry
Hydrogen peroxide is commonly used for textile bleaching, oxidizer, and desizing. It is widely used on natural cellulosic fibers (cotton, flax, linen, jute, etc.), protein fibers (wool, silk, etc.) and synthetic blends. Bleaching to high brightness with top fiber properties can be conducted in a multitude of different bleaching conditions . Hydrogen peroxide is also effective on regenerated cellulose fibers.
Pulp & Paper industry
Hydrogen peroxide is commonly used to brighten, delignify and control environmental upsets applied as a versatile bleaching agent in chemical pulp bleaching sequences, in mechanical pulp bleaching as the only or as the dominant bleaching chemical as well as in paper recycling with printing ink removal.
In chemical pulp mills, hydrogen peroxide can be used to both delignify and brighten. Since it will effectively replace a portion of the chlorine dioxide requirement in a conventional kraft bleach sequence, and it is an excellent option for the bleacher that needs to increase brightness, increase throughput or lower bleaching costs.
In mechanical pulp , hydrogen peroxide is the only brightening solution that will provide high brightness gains (>15 brightness points) while preserving yield. In secondary fiber processing, hydrogen peroxide is a versatile brightener. It can be used in the pulper, disperger, or in a traditional tower post-bleach.
In paper recycling the removal of printing ink is the most important objective in case the fibers should be reused in the manufacture of printing papers or tissue grades. Brightening and color removal are secondary targets. Fiber brightening is achieved mainly with H 2O 2.
A bleaching agent
Hydrogen peroxide is used to bleach a wide range of different products like for oils, waxes, fibres and other natural products. The standard approach is the application of H 2O 2 under alkaline conditions. The concentration and the pH regime can differ in a wide range in order to take care of the specific sensitivity of the products to be bleached. Wood veneer, wooden products, straw and grasses are examples for these products. Hair and bristle need specially buffered bleaching conditions to maintain the raw materials quality. Other products are bleached under weak to strong acidic conditions, e. g. sulfuric acid, vegetable oils or animal products like fish oil.
Environmental protection
Hydrogen peroxide is a proven, cost-effective solution for a variety of water, soil, and toxic air emissions, for the detoxification and color removal of wastewater . Refineries, chemical plants, paper mills, municipalities, soil remediators and many other types of operations use hydrogen peroxide. With it, they treat or control aldehydes, phenols and other aromatic compounds, reduced sulfur compounds, chlorine, cyanides, NOx, SOx, BOD, COD and several other pollutants.
Cosmetic industry
Hydrogen peroxide has been designed for a variety of cosmetic and pharmaceutical applications. They are used in professional preparations, in topical solutions which help fight germs without staining, in antiseptics and contact lens cleaning solutions.
Food Processing
Hydrogen peroxide is approved for use in such FDA approved applications as bleaching instant tea, tripe and dietary fiber and as a sanitizer of polymeric food-contact services used in packaging. When used in food applications, hydrogen peroxide dosing is controlled to minimize the amount of residual hydrogen peroxide. However, any remaining residual normally decomposes to oxygen and water in any subsequent processing steps.
Chemical industry
Hydrogen peroxide and its in-situ derivatives are powerful oxidizing agents that are environmentally attractive, yet capable of oxidizing a wide range of organic compounds. Hydrogen peroxide is widely used in epoxidation and hydroxylation reactions and it is an excellent choice in oxidative cleavage reactions and for oxidizing ketones, aldehydes, alcohols, organic nitrogen and organic sulfur compounds. Hydrogen peroxide can also be used in a variety of solvent systems since it is soluble in water, many organic solvents or the substrate itself.
A method of producing propylene oxide from hydrogen peroxide has been developed. The process is claimed to be environmentally friendly since the only significant byproduct is water. It is also claimed the process has significantly lower investment and operating costs. Two of these “HPPO” (hydrogen peroxide to propylene oxide) plants came onstream in 2008: One of them located in Belgium is a Solvay, Dow-BASF joint venture, and the other in Korea, is a EvonikHeadwaters, SK Chemicals joint venture. A caprolactam application for hydrogen peroxide has been commercialized. Potential routes to phenol and epichlorohydrin utilizing hydrogen peroxide have been postulated.