The authoritative public forum
  for Metal Finishing since 1989
-----

HCl purification

2005

I'm a high school student, conducting a project on a plant manufacturing.
My question is, if a have a hydrogen chloride (HCl) product mix with hydrocarbon gases (C2H2, C2H4). how should I purify the HCl to get at least 99.9 % purity?

thank you,

Emilia F
student - Perak, Malaysia

---

HCl is an ionic gas while C2H2 and C2H4 are organic gasses.

I'm not an expert, but perhaps if you dissolve them in an organic liquid?

Yong Tze Shoong
- Pasir gudang, Johor, Malaysia
2005

---

2005

My initial thaought was dissolving them in another organic liquid, but they are all partially soluble in water so you would never reach your desired purity. (and might be very dangerous)
My guess is that you would have to react the HCl with NaOH, evaporate the contaminated liquid, and then use commercial methods to manufacture manufacture HCl from the salt.
There is an outside possibility that you could use a very high theoretical plate number fractional distillation rig and separate it in a number of different cuts. Some should meet your purity requirement.

James Watts
- Navarre, Florida