Recovery of 1,2-dichloroethane from vinyl chloride production effluent

Claim 1

A process for recovering 1,2-dichloroethane from a mixture of 1,2-dichloroethane and at least one chlorinated hydrocarbon heavier than 1,2-dichloroethane selected from the group consisting of trichloroethane, tetrachloroethane, tetrachloroethylene, trichloroethylene, chlorinated butanes and chlorinated butenes, comprising: introducing said mixture into a stripping column operated at an overhead temperature from about 225° to about 350°F, a bottoms temperature from about 270° to about 410°F and a pressure from about 20 psig to about 130 psig to separate and recover 1,2-dichloroethane from the mixture as overhead; introducing into the bottoms of said stripping column, as stripping gas, a member selected from the group consisting of ethane, ethylene and mixtures of ethane and ethylene to strip 1,2-dichloroethane from said mixture, said stripping gas being introduced in a molar amount sufficient to reduce the partial pressure of 1,2-dichloroethane over the heavier chlorinated hydrocarbons and provide a bottoms containing no greater than 1 wt.% of 1,2-dichloroethane; recovering as overhead from said stripping column 1,2-dichloroethane and said stripping gas; and recovering a bottoms from the stripping column having a 1,2-dichloroethane content of no greater than 1 wt. %.