GB671947A - Improvements in or relating to the production of organic chlorine compounds - Google Patents

Abstract

Chloroethylenes and chloroethanes are made by passing a gaseous stream comprising 1 to 5 vols. of Cl2 and 1 vol. of C2H6 into a reaction zone, containing a bed of finely-divided inert solid material, maintained at a temperature in the range 250-550 DEG C., with a linear velocity sufficient to maintain the finely-divided material in suspension within the reactor and subsequently isolating the desired chlorohydrocarbons. Small amounts of ethylene (which may be recycled), acetylene, hydrogen chloride and high-boiling chlorinated butenes are also obtained. With chlorine/ethane ratios of less than 2- 5/1 and a temperature of 500 DEG C., partial cracking of the chlorinated ethane results in the production of chloroethylenes. With chlorine/ethane ratios of the order of 2/1 , e.g. 1.7-2.3/1, and a temperature of about 500 DEG C., e.g. 480-520 DEG C., a high yield of vinyl chloride is obtained with some ethylene, dichloroethylenes (mainly asym-dichloroethylene) and dichloroethanes (mainly ethylidene chloride). With these reaction temperatures and chlorine/ethane ratios of above 2- 5/1 , the products are mainly chloroethylenes with little chloroethanes. As the ratio increases from 3 to 4/1 increasing amounts of trichloroethylene are formed and at the latter ratio vinyl chloride formation diminishes while formation of perchloroethylene and ether high-boiling compounds is quite large. Vinyl chloride is also obtained by using lower temperatures, e.g. 350-425 DEG C., together with di- and tri-chloroethanes which may be separately cracked at 600-700 DEG C. Sand is a particularly useful inert material. In four examples, chlorine and ethane are reacted in the presence of fluidized 50-100 mesh sand to yield vinyl chloride, ethyl chloride, ethylidene chloride, vinylidene chloride, trichloroethane, trichloroethylene, perchloroethylene, ethylene, acetylene, high-boiling compounds (probably chlorinated butenes) and hydrogen chloride in varying proportions depending on the reaction conditions, as indicated above.