Methyl chloride via oxyhydrochlorination of methane. Quarterly technical progress report No. 13, October--December 1994

The purpose of this contract is to develop a process for converting light alkane gases to methyl chloride via oxyhydrochlorination using highly selective, stable catalysts in fixed-bed reactors designed to remove the large amount of heat generated, so as to control the reaction temperature. Further, the objective is to obtain the engineering data base necessary for developing a commercially feasible process and to evaluate t economics of the process. Significant progress was made in six different technical areas during this quarter. These key highlights are: (1) Evaluation of catalyst samples from UCI led to the ordering of the OHC PDU catalyst batch. This catalyst batch arrived, was screened and found to be defective, and was reordered. (2) Natural gas containing higher hydrocarbons was used as a methane source. The reactant mixture formed oxygenates at temperatures lower than observed in the past. Burning at such low temperatures seems to create a product stream containing very little CH{sub 2}Cl{sub 2}. (3) Although it has not been decided if the PDU will use natural gas from the plant or methane or natural gas from cylinders as a methane feed source, it was concluded that an adsorption unit to remove sulfur and higher hydrocarbons is not necessary at this time. (4) PDU construction was completed in December. The bulk of insulation work was completed at the end of November. Much effort has been put into pressure testing the PDU`s systems. The startup team has become adept at finding and correcting such leaks. (5) SOP writing for the PDU was completed this quarter with communication with the software programmer to insure agreement between the software and SOP