Production of Ethylene

Dichloride
Submitted by:Aayush Mohan Bansal (131501)
Anshumaan Srivastava (131507)
Ayush Jain (131509)

Historical Profile
In 1794, Jan Rudolph Deiman, Adriaan
Paets , Anthoni Lauwerenburg, and Nicolaas
Bondt (Society of Dutch Chemists) were
the first to produce 1,2-dichloroethane from
olefiant gas (ethylene) andchlorinegas.
1,2-dichloroethane was called "Dutch oil" in
old chemistry.

Applications
Ethylene dichloride is primarily used in the
production of vinyl chloride.
EDC has been used as a solvent in the textile,
metal cleaning and adhesives industries.
It is a good polar aprotic solvent, 1,2dichloroethane could be used as degreaser and
paint remover.
It is used as an intermediate in the production
of various organic compounds such as
ethylenediamine, perchloroethyleneand as a
catalyst in hexachlorophene production.

It is also used as a dispersant in rubber and

plastics, as a wetting and penetrating
agent.
Historically, 1,2-dichloroethane was used as
an anti-knock additive in leaded fuels.
1,2-dichloroethane is a precursor to 1,1,1trichloroethane, which is used indry
cleaning.

Economic Scenario

Most of the Ethylene dichloride produced is used

for the preparation of Poly Vinyl Chloride
therefore its production and consumption are
synonymous with that of Vinyl Chloride Monomer.

Poly Vinyl Chloride (PVC) industry is important for

national economy as in India it is valued at over
Rs. 20,000 crores with five major producers and
over 6,000 processors, employing tens of
thousands of people, making consumer and
industrial products.

The global consumption of PVC was around 40

million tons.

Indian Scenario

For the period between 2002 and 2015, the

total demand for PVC in the country grew at
a CAGR of 8.7%. During the same period
domestic production capacity grew at a
CAGR of 4.6 % whereas imports grew at a
CAGR of 32.5%.

Properties

Manufacturing
Processes
There are 2 methods available for
production of Ethylene dichloride:1.) Direct chlorination
2.)Oxychlorination

Criteria for process selection

Economic evaluation
Capital investment
Operating cost
Product purity
Complexities

Criteria for capacity

selection
Demand and supply data
Import and export data
Raw material availability
Availability of inventory

Based on the considerations given above

plant for production of ethylene dichloride
should be based on Direct chlorination
method and the capacity of the plant should
be approximately 500kt per day.

Direct chlorination cannot be used for the

production of Ethylene Dichloride because
of the unjustified disposal of Hydrogen
chloride.

Oxychlorination cannot be used because of

large investment and more complexities.

An intermediate process was developed to

overcome these limitations.

Detailed description of selected

process
Most of the ethylene dichloride produced is
consumed in making VCM whose by product
is HCl.
Ethylene dichloride is produced from
chlorine obtained by electrochemical
conversion of HCl.
Ferric chloride is used as the catalyst.
EDC is then purified in the purification unit.

Anhydrous hydrogen chloride is treated in

electrochemical cell to give chlorine.
This chlorine is then sent to chlorination
reactor.

Thank you