Selective chlorination of acetone in the gas phase

The aim of this paper is to describe the principal chemical reactions by an appropriate kinetic model, and to determine parameters of this model by me ans of kinetic data obtained in a continuous isothermal stirred reactor. Th e reactions of chlorination of acetone are very fast. Chlorine reacts compl etely, its outflow concentration is equal to zero and is not dependent on t he temperature and the inlet, acetone/chlorine mole ratio. Maximum selectiv ity is reached for low temperature, below 55 degrees C, a higher temperatur e causes a decrease in the selectivity. Also a high acetone/chlorine mole r atio maximizes the selectivity of the process, the optimal ratio is ranging from 10 to 15. A further increase in this value does not influence the sel ectivity, on the contrary, it causes a decrease in both conversion and yiel d of acetone. In practice it means that there is a large amount of unreacte d acetone in the outlet flow from the reactor, which has to be recycled bac k into the reactor after separation of the reaction products.