PROCESS FOR PRODUCING CHLORINATED DERIVATIVES OF ETHYLENE IZING CATALYTIC COMBUSTION FOR BY-PRODUCT DISPOSAL

摘要

PROCESS OF PRODUCING CHLORINATED DERIVATIVES OF ETHYLENE UTILIZING CATALYTIC COMBUSTION FOR BY-PRODUCT DISPOSAL An improved method of making chlorinated derivatives of ethylene wherein chlorine-containing by-products are burned in an alumina catalytic bed combustion reactor to produce primarily hydrogen chloride which is recycled to the chlorinated derivative reaction. The heat of combustion from said reactor is utilized to preheat the feed materials in said chlorinated derivative reaction or to produce steam. The fixed or fluid bed catalytic combustion step is carried out under atmospheric or super-atmospheric pressure and at temperatures in the range of about 400.degree.C. to about 500.degree.C. to produce a mixture of gases containing essentially hydrogen chloride, carbon oxides, water and inert materials, said mixture being substantially free of elemental chlorine and chlorohydrocarbon compounds. The preferred overall process comprises the steps of (1) the one step adiabatic synthesis of vinyl chloride wherein ethylene, elemental chlorine and/or ethylene dichloride (EDC) are reacted at high temperatures in the vapor phase to produce vinyl chloride and hydrogen chloride as a by-product; (2) a fluidized bed oxyhydrochlorination step wherein the hydrogen chloride from(1) is reacted with ethylene and oxygen at a temperature of about 190.degree.C. to about 250.degree.C. over a Deacon style catalyst to produce EDC which is recycled to (1); (3) a fixed or fluid bed catalytic combustion step using alumina (Al2O3) as the catalyst, wherein unwanted by-products from steps (1) and/or (2) are burned, as described above, the mixture of combustion gases so obtained being recycled to (2); and (4) a closed heat loop wherein the heat of combustion of (3) is used to preheat incoming feed or intermediate feed streams in the process, such as in (1) and/or (2).