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A process and apparatus are described for converting a feed that is substantially comprised of halogenated materials, and especially byproduct and waste chlorinated hydrocarbons as are produced from a variety of chemical manufacturing processes, to one or more higher value products via a partial oxi

A process and apparatus are described for converting a feed that is substantially comprised of halogenated materials, and especially byproduct and waste chlorinated hydrocarbons as are produced from a variety of chemical manufacturing processes, to one or more higher value products via a partial oxidation reforming reaction step. These products can be in the form of a useful or salable acid product and/or a product synthesis gas comprised of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, or the reaction product including the same hydrogen halide, carbon monoxide and hydrogen components can be employed as a feed in the synthesis of a different useful or salable product.

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1. A process for converting a feed comprised substantially of halogenated materials to one or more useful products selected from one or more useable or salable halogen acid products in aqueous or anhydrous form and a product synthesis gas comprised of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, which process incl

1. A process for converting a feed comprised substantially of halogenated materials to one or more useful products selected from one or more useable or salable halogen acid products in aqueous or anhydrous form and a product synthesis gas comprised of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, which process includes the steps of: a) providing the feed, an oxygen source and a supplemental hydrogen-containing co-feed as required to enable the conversion of substantially all of the halogenated materials in the feed to a corresponding hydrogen halide, to a partial oxidation reforming reactor zone under reducing conditions; wherein the co-feed is one selected from the group consisting of methane and a mixture of methane and steam;b) recovering from the reactor zone a reaction product comprised of one or more hydrogen halides, water, carbon monoxide and hydrogen but containing essentially no unconverted halogenated materials; andc) separating out and recovering without an intervening neutralization step from the reaction product, either or both of i) one or more useable or salable halogen acid products in aqueous or anhydrous form and ii) a product synthesis gas comprised of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. 2. A process as defined in claim 1, wherein the oxygen source is comprised of one or more oxygen-containing gases selected from oxygen, air, oxygen-enriched air and carbon dioxide. 3. A process as defined in claim 1, wherein the halogenated materials are comprised substantially entirely of byproduct and waste chlorinated materials. 4. A process as defined in claim 3, wherein the feed is characterized by an overall chlorine content of at least about 15 percent by weight. 5. A process as defined in claim 4, wherein the feed is substantially liquid in form and includes one or more of heavy and light distillation fractions from a chlor-alkali manufacturing process, from the manufacture of ethylene dichloride and vinyl chloride monomer or of chlorinated solvents, or from the manufacture of olefin oxides via a chlorohydrin intermediate, polychlorinated biphenyl-contaminated transformer oils and heat transfer fluids, chlorinated pesticide and herbicide wastes and waste chlorinated solvents. 6. A process as defined in claim 5, wherein the feed further includes dioxin- and/or furan-laden particulates. 7. A process as defined in claim 1 or as defined in claim 4, wherein the feed is characterized as relatively ash-free, including less than about 5 percent of ash and other inorganic materials. 8. A process as defined in claim 1, wherein the feed includes fluorinated organic materials. 9. A process as defined in claim 1, wherein the feed is substantially a liquid with any particulate solids present being smaller than about 2 millimeters in size. 10. A process as defined in claim 9, wherein any particulate solids are smaller than about 500 microns in size. 11. A process as defined in claim 10, wherein any particulate solids are smaller than about 200 microns in size. 12. A process as defined in claim 11, wherein any particulate solids are smaller than about 100 microns in size. 13. A process as defined in any of claims 9 through 12, further comprising the steps of grinding a part or the whole of the feed to meet the indicated particulate solids size limitation, using a classification device internal to the grinder used for the grinding step or located downstream thereof for permitting only those particulate solids meeting the indicated size limitation to be passed to the partial oxidation reforming reactor zone, and recycling any larger particulate solids back for being further ground to size. 14. A process as defined in claim 1, wherein the halogenated materials include at least some chlorinated materials, the reaction product from the reactor is characterized as being substantially free of dioxins and furans and wherein the step of recovering the reaction product includes a rapid wet gas quench step and a particulate removal step for collecting undissolved particulate solids from the quench step and removing these solids from the reaction product. 15. A process as defined in claim 14, wherein the collected undissolved particulate solids are intermittently or periodically purged from the process. 16. A process as defined in claim 14, wherein the collected undissolved particulate solids are substantially all recycled to complete conversion in the partial oxidation reforming reactor. 17. A process as defined in claim 14, wherein the particulate removal step includes flux force/condensation scrubbing. 18. A process as defined in claim 17, further comprising demisting the quenched and scrubbed reaction product to prevent any carryover of entrained particulate matter to downstream apparatus for the separation and recovery of product(s) step. 19. A process as defined in claim 1, wherein the step of recovering the reaction product includes a hot gas filtration step to remove particulate solids from the reaction product followed by a quench cooling step on the gas from the hot gas filtration step. 20. A process as defined in claim 1, wherein the step of recovering the reaction product includes passing the reaction product through a heat recovery unit to recover heat value from the reaction product and to cool the reaction product to a temperature in excess of the dew point of hydrogen halides in the reaction product, but which is suitable for allowing the removal of particulate solids from the reaction product in a baghouse filtration apparatus, then removing particulate solids from the reaction product by baghouse filtration and quench cooling the filtered reaction product. 21. A process as defined in claim 1, wherein the step of recovering the reaction product includes spraying a vaporizable liquid into the reaction product to cool the reaction product to a temperature in excess of the dew point of hydrogen halides contained in the reaction product, but which is suitable for allowing the removal of particulate solids from the reaction product in a baghouse filtration apparatus, then removing particulate solids from the reaction product by baghouse filtration and quench cooling the filtered reaction product. 22. A process as defined in claim 3, wherein the step of recovering the reaction product includes spraying a vaporizable liquid into the reaction product to cool the reaction product to a temperature in excess of the dew point of hydrogen halides contained in the reaction product, but which is suitable for allowing the removal of particulate solids from the reaction product in a baghouse filtration apparatus, then removing particulate solids from the reaction product by baghouse filtration and quench cooling the filtered reaction product. 23. A process as defined in either of claim 21 or claim 22, wherein the vaporizable liquid is comprised of an aqueous hydrochloric acid solution recycled back from one or more sources in the process downstream of the recited spray cooling step. 24. A process as defined in any of claim 14, 19, 20, 21 or 22, comprising passing the reaction product following the quench and particulate removal steps to an acid absorption step, for removing hydrogen halides from the reaction product into an absorbent and forming an acid-lean, product synthesis gas as the overheads from the acid absorption step. 25. A process as defined in claim 24, further comprising removing residual halogen content from the acid-lean, product synthesis gas by scrubbing the product synthesis gas with an alkaline solution optionally including a free halogen scavenger. 26. A process as defined in claim 25, further comprising the step of removing or counteracting any halogen acid aerosol in the acid-lean, product synthesis gas. 27. A process as defined in claim 24, wherein the absorbent is a weak aqueous acid solution or water, and the concentrated halogen acid solution resulting therefrom is distilled to provide an anhydrous acid product. 28. A process as defined in claim 27, wherein the anhydrous halogen acid product is essentially only anhydrous hydrochloric acid, and wherein the process further comprises the step of feeding the anhydrous hydrochloric acid to an oxychlorination reactor of an ethylene dichloride/vinyl chloride monomer manufacturing process. 29. A process as defined in claim 24, wherein the acid-lean, product synthesis gas possesses a higher heating value of at least about 75 BTUs per standard cubic foot on a dry basis, where the referenced standard conditions correspond to a temperature of zero degrees Celsius and one atmosphere of pressure. 30. A process as defined in claim 29, wherein the product synthesis gas possesses a higher heating value of at least about 200 BTUs per dry standard cubic foot, where the referenced standard conditions correspond to a temperature of zero degrees Celsius and one atmosphere of pressure. 31. A process as defined in claim 30, further comprising producing methanol, ammonia, acetic acid, acetic anhydride or 1,3-propanediol with the product synthesis gas. 32. The process as defined in claim 1, wherein the co-feed is methane. 33. The process as defined in claim 1, wherein the co-feed is a mixture of methane and steam.