Reliability in the Face of Supply Chain Disruption

Background

Ferrous and ferric salts are critical chemicals for numerous drinking water and wastewater applications. There are four main types: ferrous salts, ferric chloride, ferrous sulfate, and ferric sulfate. Within anaerobic digesters, iron chloride salts are the main tool for H2S and struvite control. They are produced by the steel and chlor-alkali industries. Within the last few years there have been major disruptions to the regional, national, and international supply chains within these industries that led to several market shortages and allocations. The cost of iron chloride salts increased more than 100% over two years in large baseline commodity bids, and the limited supply of iron chloride salts that was available was reserved for the most critical applications.

Apply Best-Fit Chemistries

With a holistic understanding of the regional supply of all ferric and ferrous salts and the technical suitability of each type of iron salt, USP worked with our customers to apply the overall best fit iron salt. We helped customers using iron chloride salts switch to iron sulfate when possible so that they could save money and have a more reliable source. By shifting some applications to iron sulfate salts, this freed up iron chloride salts for anaerobic digester applications. We also used ferrous chloride and ferric chloride in times of need.

Supply Chain Optimization

We supported our customers by securing long term commitments, establishing new regional storage and transloading locations, building more robust trucking capabilities, and supplying inventory management tools.

Results are examples only. They are not guaranteed. Actual results may vary.