Catalytic destruction of vinyl chloride over an alumina-supported platinum catalyst

In this study, vinyl chloride (VC), the primary material for manufacturing polyvinyl chloride (PVC), is decomposed via catalytic oxidation (C-OX) using Pt/γ-Al2O3 catalyst. The effects of related major factors such as reaction temperature (T) and gas hourly space velocity on the conversion of VC (X) were examined. The values of T for achieving conversions of 50% and 90% are 504 and 580 K with C-OX, respectively, whereas those without Pt/γ-Al2O3 (i.e., thermal oxidation, T-OX) are 900 and 983 K, respectively, thus indicating that C-OX significantly reduces T for effective oxidation of VC to form CO2, HCl, and Cl2 when compared with T-OX. The mineralizations of carbon in VC to form CO2 are 75.5% and 38% for C-OX and T-OX, respectively, at 90% X. The conversions of chlorine atom in 1,2-dichloroenane (DCEA) to Cl in HCl and Cl2 are approximately 42% and 50.8% for C-OX and T-OX, respectively, at 90% X. These results indicate that the Pt/γ-Al2O3 catalyst exhibits remarkable performance for the mineralizations to form CO2 even though a proportion of chlorine atoms are adsorbed on the Pt surface. The Eley-Rideal model can be used to describe the experimental results, thus yielding activation energy and frequency factor values of 49.0 kJ mol(-1) and 1.77 × 10(6) s(-1), respectively. The obtained information and kinetic parameters are useful for the rational design and operation of C-OX process for the abatement of VC.