Patent ID: 8049047

Claim:
A process for the manufacture of 1,2-dichloroethane starting with a hydrocarbon source, comprising: a) subjecting the hydrocarbon source to a first cracking step carried out in at least one cracking furnace, thus producing a mixture of cracking products; b) subjecting said mixture of cracking products to a series of treatment steps making it possible to obtain a mixture of products containing ethylene and other constituents; c) subjecting said mixture of products containing ethylene to a first separation step S 1 which consists of separating said mixture of products inside a column C 1 , into a fraction enriched with the compounds that are lighter than ethylene containing some of the ethylene (fraction A) and into a fraction F 1 ; d) subjecting said fraction F 1 to a second separation step S 2 which consists of separating fraction F 1 inside a column C 2 into a fraction F 2 and into a heavy fraction (fraction C); e) subjecting said fraction F 2 to a third separation step S 3 which consists of separating fraction F 2 inside a column C 3 into a fraction enriched with ethylene (fraction B) and into a fraction F 3 mainly composed of ethane; f) conveying said fraction A to a chlorination reactor and said fraction B to an oxychlorination reactor, wherein in said chlorination and oxychlorination reactors, most of the ethylene present in fractions A and B is converted to 1,2-dichloroethane; and g) separating the 1,2-dichloroethane obtained from step f) from the streams of products derived from the chlorination and oxychlorination reactors.