Melt oxychlorination process

Claim 1

A process which comprises chlorinating a material of the group consisting of C 2 hydrocarbons, incompletely chlorinated derivates of C 2 hydrocarbons, and mixtures thereof, containing at least 50% by weight of at least one of 1,1,2-trichloroethane and dichloroethylene to produce a chlorinated product containing one or more of trichloroethylene and perchloroethylene, at a temperature within the range of 300°-500° C., by means of a melt consisting essentially of iron chloride, copper chloride and alkali metal chloride by dispersing the material to be chlorinated in the melt whereby said material is chlorinated by the melt; withdrawing a gaseous effluent from the reaction zone which contains unreacted starting material and the resulting chlorinated hydrocarbon products and recovering the chlorinated hydrocarbon products from the effluent as the product of the process wherein: (a) the alkali metal chloride is selected from the group consisting of sodium chloride, potassium chloride, rubidium chloride, cesium chloride, and mixtures thereof; (b) the mole ratio of iron chloride to copper chloride is from about 0.1:1 to about 2:1, (c) the mole ratio of alkali metal chloride to combined moles of iron and copper chlorides is from about 0.5:1 to about 2:1; and (d) at least some of the copper chloride is cupric chloride and substantially all of the iron chloride is ferric chloride.