Ethylene dichloride
Recently, Chemetry (Moss Landing, Calif.; www.chemetrycorp.com) and Braskem (Sao Paulo, Brazil; www.braskem.com) announced their intent to construct and operate a demonstration plant using Chemetry’s eShuttle technology for the production of ethylene dichloride (EDC) in Brazil. The initial focus of this agreement will be the construction of a demonstration unit to be installed at Braskem’s Chlor-alkali Maceió site, Alagoas State, Brazil. Chemetry’s eShuttle technology eliminates chlorine generation from the traditional chlor-alkali process. It replaces the chlor-alkali and direct-chlorination processes with a single, integrated process that uses a circulating stream of aqueous copper chloride to transfer chloride ions from NaCl to ethylene. Like the processes it replaces, the eShuttle technology uses the same feedstocks — NaCl brine, water and ethylene — to produce the same products — EDC, caustic and H2 — but at much lower energy and operating cost and without Cl2 gas generation.