Vinyl Chloride Explosion

Vinyl chloride monomer explosion illiopolis illinois april 23 2004 open pdf 3 mb the u s.

Vinyl chloride explosion.

Vinyl chloride is used primarily to make polyvinyl chloride pvc. The statement came after a press conference on friday where local government officials in zhangjiakou. Vinyl chloride is a colorless gas that burns easily. Vinyl chloride is peroxidizable.

About 13 billion kilograms are produced annually. Vinyl chloride is an organochloride with the formula h 2 c chcl that is also called vinyl chloride monomer vcm or chloroethene this colorless compound is an important industrial chemical chiefly used to produce the polymer polyvinyl chloride pvc. Forms explosive polymeric peroxides in contact with air in the presence of any of a variety of catalysts bretherick 1979. Vinyl chloride is primarily used to make polyvinyl chloride to manufacture plastics.

The major industrial preparation of vinyl chloride begins with ethylene and has two. It does not occur naturally and must be produced industrially for its commercial uses. What is vinyl chloride. Vinyl chloride is a chlorinated hydrocarbon occurring as a colorless highly flammable gas with a mild sweet odor that may emit toxic fumes of carbon dioxide carbon monoxide hydrogen chloride and phosgene when heated to decomposition.

The explosion followed a release of highly flammable vinyl chloride which ignited. Long storage in contact with air increases the concentration of the polyperoxides to hazardous levels mca case history 1551. Center for chemical process safety ccps 2004 10 i il 8. Vinyl chloride a colourless flammable toxic gas belonging to the family of organohalogen compounds and used principally in making polyvinyl chloride or pvc a widely used plastic with numerous applications.

The explosion forced a community evacuation and lighted fires that burned for several days at the plant. An explosion in north china early wednesday morning that killed 23 people and injured 22 was caused by a vinyl chloride leak at a plant run by a subsidiary of the china national chemical corporation chemchina the state owned chemical manufacturer admitted in a statement friday afternoon.