Process for the preparation of vinyl chloride

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10239803-B2
Application number	US-201615574208-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 26, 2016
Priority date	May 27, 2015
Publication date	Mar 26, 2019
Grant date	Mar 26, 2019

Abstract

A process for the production of vinyl chloride comprises the step of passing a feed stream comprising ethylene dichloride (EDC) over a catalyst system comprising a dehydrochlorination catalyst and a hydrochlorination catalyst at a temperature, which may be in the range 150-350° C., sufficient to effect dehydrochlorination of the ethylene dichloride to produce vinyl chloride.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A process for the production of vinyl chloride, comprising:
passing a feed stream comprising ethylene dichloride over a catalyst system comprising a dehydrochlorination catalyst and a hydrochlorination catalyst at a reaction temperature and reaction pressure sufficient to effect dehydrochlorination of the ethylene dichloride to produce vinyl chloride,
wherein the feed stream contains essentially no hydrogen,
wherein the dehydrochlorination catalyst comprises a supported noble metal catalyst that comprises at least one of platinum, palladium, ruthenium, and rhodium, and
wherein the hydrochlorination catalyst comprises at least one metal selected from the group consisting of gold, mercury, palladium, silver, ruthenium, iridium, platinum, rhodium, copper, bismuth, tin, zirconium, antimony, lead, and compounds thereof.

2. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the reaction temperature is in the range of from 150° C. to 350° C.

3. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the reaction pressure is in the range of from 0 to 55 bar G.

4. The process according to claim 1 , wherein acetylene is present in the feed stream.

5. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the hydrochlorination catalyst comprises gold or a compound of gold on a catalyst support.

6. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the hydrochlorination catalyst comprises a non-metallic catalyst.

7. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the dehydrochlorination and hydrochlorination catalysts are present in separate reaction vessels.

8. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the dehydrochlorination and hydrochlorination catalysts are present in the same vessel.

9. The process according to claim 8 , wherein the catalyst system comprises particles of a dehydrochlorination catalyst and separate particles of a hydrochlorination catalyst present in the same reaction vessel.

10. The process according to claim 9 , wherein the separate particles of dehydrochlorination and hydrochlorination catalysts are arranged in different regions of the reaction vessel.

11. The process according to claim 9 , wherein the separate particles of dehydrochlorination and hydrochlorination catalysts are mixed together to form a mixed catalyst bed.

12. The process according to claim 8 , wherein the dehydrochlorination and hydrochlorination catalysts are present in the same catalyst particle.

13. The process according to claim 12 , wherein the hydrochlorination catalyst and the dehydrochlorination catalyst are supported on the catalyst support of the dehydrochlorination catalyst.

14. The process according to claim 13 , wherein the hydrochlorination catalyst comprises a compound containing boron, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus or sulphur.

15. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the feed stream comprises at least 80% by weight ethylene dichloride.

16. The process according to claim 15 , wherein the feed stream comprises at least 95% by weight ethylene dichloride.

Assignees

• Johnson Matthey Plc

Inventors

• Carthey Nicholas Andrew
• Hiles Andrew George
• Smit Joost Johannes

Classifications

• C07C17/25 Primary

  by splitting-off hydrogen halides from halogenated hydrocarbons · CPC title

• C07C17/08 Primary

  to unsaturated hydrocarbons · CPC title

• B01J23/52

  Gold · CPC title

• B01J23/44

  Palladium · CPC title

• B01J21/18 Primary

  Carbon · CPC title