Prepsration of vinyl chloride

We, the B.F. GOODRICH COMPANY , a Corporation organizeed under the laws of State of New
York, United States of a State of America, of 230 Park Avenue, New York, New York United of
America, do hereby declare the invention, for which we pray that a patent may be granted to us,
and the method by which it is to be performed, to be particularly described in and by the following
statement:

This invention relates to the preparation of vinyl chloride, and has particular reference to the
production of vinyl chloride by the dehydrochlorination of ethylene dichloride at elevated
temperaturas under superatomospheric pressure.

It has been known for some time that vinyl chloride can be produced by the pyrolytic
dehydrochlorination of ethylene dichloride-1,2. The process involves the passing of ethylene
dichloride through a small diameter reaction tuve and heating the ethylene dichloride to a
temperatura of about 900°F, to bring about the dehydrochlorination thereof. It was thought that
a reaction tuve with an internal diameter of only about 6 mm. Was necessary for the successful
operation of the process. It was felt that, if a reaction tuve of appreciably largar internal diameter
were used, the heat transfer from the external wall of the tuve to the material passing through the
very central área thereof would be such that an increased temperatura would be required to
produce the dehydrochlorination of the centrallylocared material, and such a temperatura would
cause the material passing close to the walls of the reaction tube to be heated too greatly and to
be further decomposed into unwanted by-products. When the pyrolysis is carried out in tubes of
larger diameter, tions tubes tend to be formed as by-products solido r high-boiling carbonaceous
substances which cause the clogging of the reacof the decomposition. When these solid or high-
boiling carbonaceour material are formed, the equipment must be shut down periodically to clean
out the reaction tubes thereby preventing the continuos operation of the process for any
appreciable time.

Although the fillingo of the reaction tubes with a non-porous packing material retards the
formation of these carbonaceous by-products substances, even the packed tubes must be
removed or mecganically cleaned far too frequently for the process to be considered particularly
economical.