Thermal decomposition of trichloroethylene under a reducing atmosphere of hydrogen

The thermal reaction of trichloroethylene (TCE: C(2)HCl(3)) has been conducted in an isothermal tubular flow reactor at I arm total pressure in order to investigate characteristics of chlorinated hydrocarbons decomposition and pyrolytic reaction pathways for fort-nation of product under excess hydrogen reaction environment. The reactions were studied over the temperature range 650 to 900 degrees C with reaction times of 0.3-2.0 s. A constant feed molar ratio C(2)HCl(3) : H(2) of 4: 96 was maintained through the whole experiments. Complete decay (99%) of the parent reagent, C(2)HCl(3) Was observed at temperature near 800 degrees C with 1 s reaction time. The maximum concentration (28%) of C(2)H(2)Cl(2) as the primary intermediate product was found at temperature 700 degrees C where up to 68% decay of C(2)HCI(3) occurred. The C(2)H(2)Cl as highest concentration (19%) of secondary products was detected at 750 degrees C. The one less chlorinated methane than parent increased with temperature rise subsequently. The number of qualitative and qualitative chlorinated products decreased with increasing temperature. HCl and dechlorinated hydrocarbons such as C,H,, C,H,, CH, and C,H, were the final products at above 800 degrees C. The almost 95% carbon material balance was given over a wide range of temperatures, and trace amounts of C(6)H(6), C(4)H(6) and C(2)HCl were observed above 800 degrees C. The decay of reactant, C(2)HCl(3) and the hydrodechlorination of intermediate products, resulted from H atom cyclic chain reaction via abstraction and addition replacement reactions. The important pyrolytic reaction pathways to describe the important features of reagent decay, intermediate product distributions and carbon mass balances, based upon thermochemical and kinetic principles, were suggested. The main reaction pathways for formation of major products along with preliminary activation energies and rate constants were given.