Reactor Scale-up for Fluidized Bed Conversion of Ethane to Vinyl Chloride

Novel LaOCl/LaCl(3) catalysts have been discovered that enable the production of vinyl chloride monomer from ethane. An ethane-based process would result in both capital savings and raw materials savings when compared to the current most effective vinyl technology. These materials are unique in the world of chlorination/oxychlorination as the mechanism for chlorination over LaOCl/LaCl(3) occurs on a catalyst without a redox metal center, unlike the conventional CuCl(2) catalysts used for oxychlorination, where the Cu species are reducible. This report focuses on the engineering approaches taken and the challenges encountered in the scale-up of a fluidized bed reactor based on this catalyst technology. The objective is to highlight the application of chemical reaction engineering principles to an industrial reactor scale-up, with special attention to the unexpected and atypical challenges encountered in this development effort.