Patent ID: 8133468

Claim:
A process comprising: (a) feeding an aqueous HBr-rich stream either together or separately with a feed brine dilute in CaCl 2 to a tower, wherein the feed brine comprises at least about 10 wt % NaCl, based on the total weight of the feed brine, and wherein the HBr-rich stream comprises amine by-products from one or more commercial processes and has a pH of less than about 4, such that production of shock-sensitive-by-products in the tower is minimized; (b) oxidizing bromide moieties within the tower with Cl 2 to produce Br 2 ; (c) recovering Br 2 from the tower; (d) removing bromide-depleted bottoms from the tower, such bottoms comprising less than about 5 wt % HCl, based on the weight of the bromide-depleted bottoms; (e) adding a Ca ++ source to the bromide depleted bottoms to convert substantially all of the HCl in the bottoms to CaCl 2 ; (f) removing at least a portion of the NaCl and, as necessary, removing water, from the treated bottoms from (e) to produce a concentrated aqueous solution comprising from about 5 wt % CaCl 2 to about 40 wt % CaCl 2 ; (g) recovering the concentrated aqueous solution comprising from about 5 wt % CaCl 2 to about 40 wt % CaCl 2 ; (h) producing Cl 2 from at least a portion of the removed NaCl.