Chlorination Process

(A) Common Features of Chlorination: (1) Basically chlorine is used as chlorinating agent during chlorination. Hence chlorine supply is important basic feature for chlorination. Chlorine is generally available in 75 kg and 900 kg cylinder. 900 kg Cl2 cylinder is called as toner. As chlorine is stored in liquid form under pressure, it is need to evaporate before passing it to reactor. (2) Chlorination reactions are highly exothermic where Hr ranges between 25 to 30 kcal/gmol. (3) During chlorination, HCl gas is obtained as the by-product. (4) As HCl gas is the by-product of reaction and it is highly corrosive in nature, hence in environmental and safety point of view, HCl gas cant be vented directly in atmosphere. So proper absorption system for HCl should be designed. (5) HCl leaving the reactor is saturated with organics. So after condensation, these condensed organic contents should be recovered and recycled back to reactor. (6) The organic phase from reactor (i.e. mostly mono-chloro-benzene, MCB, in present case) contains traces of HCl. This HCl is stripped off from reaction mass i.e. HCl stripping is done using stripper. (7) Recovery of organics from HCl absorption system is necessary. (B) Preliminary Process System (PPS) for manufacture of Mono-chloro-benzene from Benzene and Chlorine: To develop this PPS, use following guidelines / hints/ description. (i) (ii) (iii) Chlorine is stored in chlorine toner. Chlorine from toner is passed to chlorine evaporator to evaporate the chlorine and then this gaseous chlorine is passed to reactor. Benzene (in liquid form) from Benzene day tank (DT) is passed to reactor (chlorinator). Reaction between chlorine and benzene takes place in chlorinator and organic phase mostly containing mono-chloro-benzene (MCB) along with few amount of di- and tri- chloro-benzene (DCB and TCB) is produced; also HCl gas is produced as by-product. Gaseous phase (mainly containing HCl gas and few amount of organics saturated with HCl) from reactor is passed to series of condensers (2 or 3 condensers), where, organics get condensed which are recycled back to chlorinator while HCl gas stream is further passed to HCl absorption system. Organic phase from chlorinator contains traces of HCl. Therefore this organic phase before passing to further separation system, it is passed to stripper where HCl traces get stripped off from organic phase. This HCl, stripped off from stripper is also sent to HCl absorption system. Organic phase now free from HCl is passed to further purification i.e. to series of distillation column,

(iv)

(v)

where main product MCB gets separated from traces of DCB, TCB and unconverted Benzene if any. (C) Preliminary Process System (PPS) for manufacture of chloro-nitro-benzene from Benzene and Chlorine: In this case, first MCB is produced using chlorination process i.e. chlorination of benzene using chlorine gas as chlorinating agent; further nitration of this MCB is carried out using mixed acid as nitrating agent to produce chloro-nitro-benzene. Therefore, to draw PPS for this process, first draw PPS for chlorination as described above and connect it to PPS of nitration process as described in nitration process. (D) Special type of reactor used for chlorination: For chlorination process special type of chlorinator is used which is of type Bubble Column Reactor with external Heat exchanger. To show this bubble column reactor, draw reactor (cylindrical, vertical arrangement), show the liquid and bubbles inside it. Liquid (Benzene) is fed from top or from side inlet of reactor. Here, as it is gas-liquid type reaction, CL2 gas (evaporated in Cl2 evaporator) is passed in reactor from bottom using sparger. Cl2 gas is sparged in benzene liquid so that it bubbles in liquid and good contact between gas and liquid takes place for reaction to occur. As reaction is exothermic, we need to continuously remove this heat of reaction, for which external heat exchanger is used. The whole reaction mixture (gas+liquid) is continuously circulated from reactor to heat exchanger to reactor. For this circulation, pump is used. Once the reaction is completed, the reaction mixture (product) is removed from reactor through bypass line provided on circulation line somewhere at the top of reactor. Draw heat exchanger as vertical shell and tube type heat exchanger beside the bubble column reactor. (** Refer the diagram of bubble column reactor shown at the time of lecture). (E) HCl Absorption system: As HCl gas is by-product of chlorination process and as it is being corrosive in nature, it is needed to absorb this HCl gas using suitable solvent like water or any other. The gas free from HCl then further can be vented in atmosphere. For drawing the diagram for this absorption system, use following guidelines. (i) HCl gas from condensers and stripper, is sent to 1st tail gas tower (TGT). The water from water day tank is passed to this tail gas tower, which will absorb HCl.

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(iii)

(iv)

HCl absorbed in solvent is removed from bottom of 1st TGT and passed to falling film absorber (FFA) (from top of FFA), which is arranged below 1st TGT. For a particular time duration, this HCl solution is circulted from FFA to 1st TGT to FFA. To remove the heat of absorption, cold water is circulated around FFA. After certain time, HCL solution from FFA is removed from its bottom and passed to settler cum separator, located below FFA. In this settler cum separator, HCL acid gets separated from traces of organic phase if any. HCL acid is sent to storage tank (ST). Tail gases free from HCl gas, are taken out from top of 1st TGT and passed to 2nd TGT arranged in series of 1st TGT. From this 2nd TGT, traces of HCl if any got escaped along with tail gases from 1st TGT, are absorbed in alkali solution contained in alkali solution tank located below 2nd TGT. For some time this alkaline solution is circulated using pump, to 2nd TGT to alkaline solution tank. Once all the traces of HCl removed from tail gases, remaining tail gases almost free from HCl gas, are removed from top of 2nd TGT and vented to atmosphere.

(** for TGT, FFA and Settler cum separator, refer the diagrams shown at the time of tutorial) (F) Separation of Organic Phase from stripper: We need to separate main product MCB from traces of other by-products like DCB or TCB and unconverted benzene, from organic phase coming out from stripper. To draw it, use following guidelines: (i) (ii) (iii) (iv) Organic phase (containing mostly MCB and free from HCl gas) from HCl stripper is sent to 1st distillation column (DC1), which separates unconverted Benzene from other product components. Benzene separated in DC1 is removed from its top and sent to ST. remaining organic phase is taken out from bottom of DC1 and sent to 2nd distillation column (DC2). DC2 separates MCB from top, which is further sent to ST, however bottoms of DC2 are sent to 3dr distillation column(DC3). Traces of DCB gets separated from top of DC3 and sent to ST, however bottoms of DC3 is residue stream.

** While drawing the PPS, show all equipments / tanks by rectangular or square box as necessary. ** Below PPS, make a legend showing list of equipments in PPS, for e.g. DT1 day tank for H2SO4, C Reactor, etc. ***While writing answer to such questions like to draw PPS or above various diagrams, there is no need to write this all description as described above. Use this description just as a reference to draw the various diagrams.

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