Arc-coal chemicals: A feasible alternative to petroleum-based chemicals

The Avco arc-coal process produces acetylene, ethylene, hydrogen, carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide and char by processing pulverized coal in an electric arc reactor. Many of these products are valuable building blocks, and can be used in place of feedstocks derived from petroleum and natural gas in the production of such large volume chemicals as vinyl chloride and vinyl acetate. The particular slate of products coming from the arc-coal reaction depends on the process option utilized. Acetylene product with a water quench has recently been tested in Avco's 1 megawatt arc. The design of this arc is suitable for scaleup to a 5 megawatt production unit. A second process option is the co-production of acetylene and ethylene where the heated hydrogen, char and formed acetylene are quenched with a hydrocarbon liquid or gas. Finally, it is possible to hydrogenate the acetylene to ethylene by using the excess hydrogen which is generated as part of the arc-coal reaction.