Vinyl Chloride Explosion

What is vinyl chloride.

Vinyl chloride explosion.

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. About 13 billion kilograms are produced annually. Vinyl chloride monomer explosion illiopolis illinois april 23 2004 open pdf 3 mb the u s. The explosion followed a release of highly flammable vinyl chloride which ignited.

Vinyl chloride is a colorless gas that burns easily. 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. 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.

Chemical safety and hazard investigation board csb determined that this incident occurred when an operator drained a full heated and pressurized polyvinyl chloride pvc reactor. Long storage in contact with air increases the concentration of the polyperoxides to hazardous levels mca case history 1551. Vinyl chloride is primarily used to make polyvinyl chloride to manufacture plastics. It does not occur naturally and must be produced industrially for its commercial uses.

The major industrial preparation of vinyl chloride begins with ethylene and has two. Vinyl chloride is peroxidizable. The statement came after a press conference on friday where local government officials in zhangjiakou. Pvc is used to make a variety of plastic products including pipes wire and cable coatings and packaging materials.

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. The explosion forced a community evacuation and lighted fires that burned for several days at the plant.