Calcium chloride

Chemical Properties and Applications

Calcium chloride is an ionic compound of calcium and chlorine, highly soluble in water, and deliquescent.
It is solid at room temperature and behaves as a typical ionic halide.
Widely used in energy efficiency thermal engineering applications, including phase change material applications, closed sorption processes, desiccant cooling or dehumidification, refrigeration, drying, water recovery or extraction from atmospheric air, sorption, and thermochemical energy storage.
Often applied in association with other materials to improve their suitability for various applications.

Refrigeration Applicationsn

Calcium chloride is commonly used as a chemical adsorbent in refrigeration machines, particularly with ammonia or water as refrigerants.
Used in various refrigeration machines for both positive and negative temperature cold production.

Cost-effectiveness

It is one of the cheapest commercially available salt hydrates, making it attractive for applications requiring large quantities, such as thermal storage applications.

Hygroscopic Properties

Calcium chloride exhibits highly hygroscopic desiccating and sorption capacity in both solid and liquid states.
It can adsorb up to 90% of its own weight in moisture at ambient temperature and pressure.
Calcium chloride's hygroscopic and deliquescent behavior makes it effective for moisture adsorption from the ambient air, used in dehumidification processes and desiccant cooling applications.
Although it is a weak desiccant compared to other salts like lithium bromide and lithium chloride, it still finds significant use in various industries.

Use as Accelerator

Calcium chloride is commonly used as an accelerator admixture in concrete.
It promotes the hydration rate of silicate phases, especially aluminate, reacting with tricalcium aluminate (C3A) to produce ettringite (AFt) and C3A路CaCl2路10H2O (Friedel's salt) when in contact with cement phases and gypsum.

General Description

Calcium chloride is a chemical compound with the formula CaCl2. It is an inorganic salt with properties like being hygroscopic and highly soluble in water. Calcium chloride is majorly a by-product yielded during Solvay process and it is commonly used in deicing roads, in dust control, as a firming agent for foods and in oil drilling fluids. It is also widely used in swimming pools to correct the calcium hardness of water. In its solid form, it is often encountered as a hydrated solid with generic formula CaCl2H2Ox, where x can be 0 to 6. It is odorless, significantly deliquescent with the ability to dissolve in water, forming strongly alkaline and exothermic solutions. Its chemical behavior is typical of ionic halides. Moreover, it is labeled as relatively safe for consumption according to the US FDA.