Chloromethane (methyl chloride), Methyl chloride product (liquid, to storage)

Activity Chloromethane from methanol and hydrogen chloride (gas-phase hydrochlorination, 100 kt/a), GLO: the inventory of 1 kilogram of its reference product, attributional, cut-off.

Calculation maturity: not assessed Design maturity: Concept (research)Not independently reviewedchloromethane-1:chloromethane-from-methanol-and-hydrogen-chloride-gas-phase-hydrochlorination:product:MECLPreliminaryReport a problem with this dataset
Research outputAn inventory from a research design at the design maturity its process states, not verified plant data: check its calculation maturity and review status before use. Background activities are referenced by name only; no background data is included. All caveats

What it is

Unallocated foreground LCI of Chloromethane from methanol and hydrogen chloride (gas-phase hydrochlorination), case design, derived from the flowsheet by cheme assess lca.

Reference product
1 kilogram of Chloromethane (methyl chloride), Methyl chloride product (liquid, to storage) (10.2 bar(a), 45 degC, 99.9944 % MECL (mass))
Chemical
chloromethane
CAS
74-87-3
Code
chloromethane-1:chloromethane-from-methanol-and-hydrogen-chloride-gas-phase-hydrochlorination:product:MECL
Dataset
chloromethane-from-methanol-and-hydrogen-chloride-gas-phase-hydrochlorination version 0.1.0 · UUID 355010c3-bf94-5b3b-ad34-794132b5d2b4
Activity UUID
not available (the library assigns none; use the code)
Database
cheme-as-code-atlas-preview-c3ab348 (version preview-c3ab348)
Process
Chloromethane from methanol and hydrogen chloride (gas-phase hydrochlorination, 100 kt/a)
Geography
GLO · background inputs with a site rule link at the user's site location (default DE)
Time period
2026 · valid until 2031
Technology
gas-phase hydrochlorination of methanol over gamma-alumina (multitubular, 523-613 K, 300-350 kPa(a)), hydrochloric acid quench with methanol stripping, 96 wt% sulfuric acid drying, two-stage compression and an HCl light-ends column with recycle and purge; 100 kt/a methyl chloride, concept design · level current
Boundary
gate-to-gate foreground of the plant
Production volume
100,000,000 kg/a (product:MECL per hour x operation.hours_per_year (8000 h/a))
Classification
ISIC Rev.4 2011 (taxonomy/families.yaml (ISIC Rev.4) of the process's families)
System model
attributional, cut-off (docs/system-model.md, methodology 1.1.0)
Allocation
mass, 100 % of the dataset to this product (rule single-output, from default)
one product: nothing to allocate
Rights
CC-BY-4.0: the ChemE-as-Code process library's own concept design (LICENSE-DATA)

Exchanges per 1 kilogram of Chloromethane (methyl chloride), Methyl chloride product (liquid, to storage)

As exported: allocated and scaled to the reference product. Provenance: 8 assumed, 1 calculated. Pedigree scores (1 best, 5 worst): reliability, completeness, temporal correlation, geographical correlation, further technological correlation.

Preliminary5 exchanges are not yet linked to a background dataset. They count no burden, so the inventory is incomplete: do not read a result from it as complete.
InputAmountUnitProvenancePedigreeLinked to
Methanol (methanol-1 product grade)
feed:MEOH
fresh methanol S01 (D-001, D-003)
From stream S01
0.6461kilogramassumed4 4 1 3 3unlinked
unlinked, no technosphere mapping: no mapping (no chemical slug or factor id); add it to lci/mappings.yaml technosphere or to the process's lca/mappings.yaml exchanges
Anhydrous hydrogen chloride gas
feed:HCLG
anhydrous HCl S03 (D-003)
From stream S03
0.8226kilogramassumed4 4 1 3 3unlinked
unlinked, no technosphere mapping: no mapping (no chemical slug or factor id); add it to lci/mappings.yaml technosphere or to the process's lca/mappings.yaml exchanges
Sulfuric acid 96 wt% (drying)
feed:ACID
drying acid S11 (D-008)
From stream S11
0.05215kilogramassumed4 4 1 3 3market for sulfuric acid (sulfuric acid, RER) in your background (default ecoinvent-3.11-cutoff)
Electric power
feed:POWER
compressor and pumps Q07, Q12 (D-010)
electricity
From streams Q07, Q12
0.04354kilowatt hourassumed4 4 1 3 3market for electricity, medium voltage (electricity, medium voltage, DE, site location) in your background (default ecoinvent-3.11-cutoff)
LP steam 500 kPa(a)
feed:LPS
methanol vaporiser, stripper and HCl column reboilers Q01, Q05, Q10 (D-010)
steam, LP, 151.83 degC, 5 bar(a)
From streams Q01, Q05, Q10
0.2629kilowatt hourassumed4 4 1 3 3Atlas: heat from steam, per kWh (Atlas unit proxy) (heat from steam, by energy, GLO)
Dilute hydrochloric acid (about 21 wt%) to HCl recovery or neutralisation
product:DHCL
stripper bottoms S10 (D-007)
From stream S10
0.447kilogramassumed4 4 1 3 3unlinked
unlinked, no technosphere mapping: no mapping (no chemical slug or factor id); add it to lci/mappings.yaml technosphere or to the process's lca/mappings.yaml exchanges
Spent sulfuric acid (about 80 %) to acid regeneration
product:SPENT
drying tower bottoms S12 (D-008)
From stream S12
0.06891kilogramassumed4 4 1 3 3unlinked
unlinked, no technosphere mapping: no mapping (no chemical slug or factor id); add it to lci/mappings.yaml technosphere or to the process's lca/mappings.yaml exchanges
Inert purge to the site thermal oxidiser
product:PURGE
purge S18 (D-009)
From stream S18
0.004958kilogramcalculated3 4 1 3 3unlinked
unlinked, no technosphere mapping: no mapping (no chemical slug or factor id); add it to lci/mappings.yaml technosphere or to the process's lca/mappings.yaml exchanges
Cooling water return
product:CW
heat to cooling water Q04, Q06, Q08, Q09, Q11, Q13 (D-010)
cold, 25 degC
From streams Q04, Q06, Q08, Q09, Q11, Q13
0.649kilowatt hourassumed4 4 1 3 3Atlas (plant): cooling water service, per kWh heat rejected (Atlas screening proxy) (heat rejected to cooling water, GLO)
compatible: grade the input names cooling-water only; cooling-water (Heat rejected to cooling water, 25/35 degC) is taken; unit kilowatt hour; carrier cold, 25 degC from cold, 25 degC; system model cutoff (one database); allocation mass (single-output); boundary plant gate of a site utility: no utility market yet (docs/markets.md)

Elementary flows

No elementary flows are exported for this activity (pass-through emissions and free inputs are left out, see the caveats).

The streams are the plant's own flows: an amount here is allocated and per 1 kilogram of Chloromethane (methyl chloride), Methyl chloride product (liquid, to storage), so it differs from the stream's flow, and it can sum several streams.

Where these numbers come from: each exchange names its source above; the dataset is processes/chloromethane-1/lca/dataset.yaml in library version c3ab348.

Used by

No other activity of this database links to it.

How good it is

Review
Not reviewed: no LCI review record yet
Data quality
DQR 2.33 · PEF-style DQR 2.72
TeR 3 · GeR 3 · TiR 1 · P 3.89 · C 4 · weakest TeR · primary data 0 %
Mass and carbon closure
Assessed (lca/manifest.json balance, tolerance 5 %: design maturity concept (sourced screening))
  • lci-carbon-origin: closed
  • lci-element-balance: closed
  • lci-mass-balance: closed
Change report
Not available: this build has no change report against an earlier release.

KPI benchmark positions

Not available: no benchmarked KPI for this dataset.

How to use it

Downloads

A file with this activity alone is not available: each file above is the whole database, and the line under it says how to find this activity there.

import bw2data as bd
from cheme_as_code_lci import install

bd.projects.set_current("my-project")   # holds your licensed background + biosphere3
install("cheme-as-code-atlas-preview-c3ab348.xlsx", background="ecoinvent-3.11-cutoff", location="DE")
activity = bd.get_activity(("cheme-as-code-atlas-preview-c3ab348", "chloromethane-1:chloromethane-from-methanol-and-hydrogen-chloride-gas-phase-hydrochlorination:product:MECL"))

While any exchange of the database has no mapping, install() writes nothing and only lists the unlinked exchanges. So the last line finds no activity until the gaps are mapped: the download section gives the ways to use the database now.

How to cite

Chloromethane (methyl chloride), Methyl chloride product (liquid, to storage), from Chloromethane from methanol and hydrogen chloride (gas-phase hydrochlorination, 100 kt/a) (dataset chloromethane-from-methanol-and-hydrogen-chloride-gas-phase-hydrochlorination 0.1.0), ChemE-as-Code Process Atlas LCI database preview-c3ab348, activity chloromethane-1:chloromethane-from-methanol-and-hydrogen-chloride-gas-phase-hydrochlorination:product:MECL. Cite the Process Atlas paper (in preparation, 2026), by Artur M. Schweidtmann and Jana M. Weber, and the ChemE-as-Code Process Atlas LCI database version preview-c3ab348.

DOI: none yet (the Process Atlas paper is in preparation)

For the data, cite the Process Atlas paper; for the platform that builds and checks it, the ChemE-as-Code paper.

Schweidtmann, A. M. & Weber, J. M. (2026, in preparation). Process Atlas: an open, git-native, reproducible library and life cycle inventory of chemical processes (working title).

BibTeX
@unpublished{schweidtmann_process_atlas,
  author = {Schweidtmann, Artur M. and Weber, Jana M.},
  title = {{Process Atlas: an open, git-native, reproducible library and life cycle inventory of chemical processes (working title)}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://atlas.cheme-as-code.org},
  note = {in preparation}
}

Schweidtmann, A. M. (2026, in preparation). ChemE-as-Code: An Open-Source Platform for AI-Accelerated Chemical Process Engineering (working title).

BibTeX
@unpublished{schweidtmann_cheme_as_code,
  author = {Schweidtmann, Artur M.},
  title = {{ChemE-as-Code: An Open-Source Platform for AI-Accelerated Chemical Process Engineering (working title)}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://cheme-as-code.org},
  note = {in preparation}
}