Process and apparatus for purifying vinyl chloride

A process for preparing vinyl chloride comprising the steps of feeding 1,2-dichloroethane into a cracking zone where it is incompletely thermally cracked at superatmospheric pressure and a temperature of from about 450.degree. to about 650.degree. C. in the absence of a catalyst to produce a reaction mixture of vinyl chloride, hydrogen chloride, unreacted 1,2-dichloroethane and high boiling products, passing the reaction mixture into a first distillation stage when most of the hydrogen chloride is distilled off and the higher boiling components are fed into a second distillation stage, distilling off the vinyl chloride in the second distillation stage and removing the higher boiling products, feeding the vinyl chloride distilled off in the second distillation stage into a condenser, liquefying the vinyl chloride in the condenser, splitting the liquefied vinyl chloride into two partial streams, feeding one of the partial streams back into the second distillation stage and the other partial stream into a third distillation stage, distilling off in the third distillation stage a mixture of entrained hydrogen chloride, entrained water and vinyl chloride while removing pure vinyl chloride from the third distillation stage, passing the mixture of entrained hydrogen chloride, entrained water and vinyl chloride into a drying zone, substantially removing the water from the hydrogen chloride and vinyl chloride in the drying zone to produce a dried mixture, and recirculating the dried mixture of hydrogen chloride and vinyl chloride back into the first distillation zone.