Oxychlorination–Dehydrochlorination Chemistry on Bifunctional Ceria Catalysts for Intensified Vinyl Chloride Production

Abstract

Abstract Ceria catalyzes the one‐step production of the vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) from ethylene with a high yield because of its bifunctional character: redox centers oxychlorinate ethylene to ethylene dichloride (EDC), which is subsequently dehydrochlorinated to VCM over strong acid sites generated in situ. Nanocrystalline CeO 2 and CeO 2 ‐ZrO 2 lead to a VCM yield of 25 % in a single pass, outperforming the best reported systems and reaching industrially attractive levels. The use of CeO 2 intensifies the current two‐step process within PVC production encompassing CuCl 2 ‐catalyzed oxychlorination and thermal cracking. In addition, ceria‐based materials offer stability advantages with respect to the archetypical CuCl 2 ‐based catalysts.