EDC/VCM

Aker Solutions Licensing and Services

Aker Solutions is a major global E&C contractor in the petrochemical, polymer and oil and gas markets.

Aker Solutions has an exclusivity agreement with OxyVinyls to provide marketing and promotional services and to sub-license OxyVinyls' EDC/VCM technologies throughout the world. Introduction and OxyVinyls Licensing

Aker Solutions also provides proposals, studies, basic engineering packages and full EPC services for the OxyVinyls' EDC/VCM process.
The agreement between Aker Solutions and OxyVinyls ensures experienced personnel committed to improve the productivity and quality of engineering services provided for new and existing licensees of these EDC/VCM technologies.

OxyVinyls Balanced VCM Plant

Direct Chlorination Technology

Direct chlorination of ethylene is generally conducted in liquid EDC in a bubble column reactor. Ethylene and chlorine dissolve in the liquid phase and combine in a homogeneous catalytic reaction to form EDC. Conversion of the limiting reactant is essentially 100% and selectivity to EDC is >99%. The reaction can be operated at either low temperatures (LTDC) or high temperatures (HTDC). OxyVinyls' energy efficient HTDC process uses the heat of reaction to provide all of the heat requirements for EDC purification.

Oxychlorination Technology

Ethylene reacts with anhydrous HCI and either air, enriched air, or pure oxygen in a heterogeneous catalytic reaction in a fluidised-bed reactor to form EDC and water. The use of oxygen instead of air permits operation at lower temperatures and results in improved operating efficiency and product yield.

Another important advantage of oxygen-based oxychlorination is the very substantial reduction in volume of the vent stream. Because of the intimate contact between the process and the fluidised catalyst, temperatures are uniform throughout the fluidised bed reactor.
OxyVinyls' patented oxychlorination catalyst results in a smaller fluid bed reactor than competing technologies.

 

EDC Purification and Catoxid™ Technology

EDC produced in Oxychlorination and direct chlorination is processed in the EDC purification unit, separating the heavy and light byproducts and water from the EDC. The optional Catoxid™ process reacts the heavy and light byproduct chlorinated hydrocarbons with oxygen in the presence of a fluidised catalyst to form HCI and CO2. All gases produced are piped directly into the oxychlorination reactor where HCI formed in the Catoxid™ process is reacted with ethylene to form more EDC. Catoxid™ is an innovative catalytic manufacturing process with substantial waste minimisation benefits. Environmental benefits include a reduction of hazardous wastes, reduced transportation and disposal costs and risks, and emissions lower than competing technologies.

EDC Cracking and VCM Purification Technology

Cracking of EDC is an endothermic process that generates VCM and HCI. OxyVinyls' vapour feed, low pressure EDC cracking technology can achieve EDC conversions per pass of over 60% while still maintaining low coking rates. The hot furnace effluent can be cooled by raising steam in a transfer line exchanger (TLE) for use in the EDC vaporiser, resulting in significant energy savings.

Hydrogenation Technology

While EDC cracking is highly selective to VCM, a small fraction is cracked all the way to acetylene. The HCI recycle stream is usually passed through a fixed bed hydrogenation reactor to selectively convert the acetylene to ethylene, which makes more EDC downstream and reduced impurities in the oxychlorination reactor effluent. A small excess amount of hydrogen is added to the feed to ensure complete conversion of acetylene.

Process Features

• Flexible process configuration for balanced or unbalanced plants
• Flexible feedstock qualities
• Low capital and operating cost
• Low utility consumptions
• Energy-efficient HTDC reactor configuration
• Smaller fluid-bed oxychlorination reactor and associated equipment operate at higher temperature utilising highly-efficient catalyst
• Low-pressure vapour-phase EDC cracking furnace
• Transfer Line Exchange (TLE) available for heat recovery
• Smaller VCM distillation columns
• Catoxid™ technology available for HCI recovery and waste minimisation
• Use of OxyVinyls' own high-efficiency catalysts for oxychlorination, hydrogenation, and Catoxid™ processes
• Environmental control systems that meet all standards (air, water, personnel exposure, etc)