Today most ethyl chloride is manufactured by one of two other processes: ethane chlorination and hydrochlorination of ethylene. Both will be dealt with briefly.

Thc chlorination of ethane is, like methane chlorination, conducted purely thermally at 300-450 °C with slight excess pressure. Kinetics favor monochlorination over multiple chlorination so that with an additional ovcr-stoichiomctrical ethane/clorine ratio of 3-5:1, a high ethyl chloride selectivity can be obtained.

As almost no byproducts arise from the addition of hydrogen chloride to ethylene, this reaction can be run very economically in combination with ethanc chlorination (by using thc hydrogen chloride produced) in the so-called integrdtcd process. Since addition of chlorine to ethylene is minimal at 400 °C, ethane can be chlorinated in the presence of ethylene and, after separation of cthyl chloride, ethylene in the gas mixture can be catalytically hydrochlorinated in a sccond reactor:

A combined process of this type was developed by Shell.

Hydrochlorination of ethylene is by far the preferred manufacturing process for ethyl chloride. Since 1979, no other process has been used in the United States. It can either be conducted in the liquid phase at 30-90°C and 3-5 bar with Friedel-Crafts catalysts such as AlCl₃ or FeCl₃ or, as in new plants, in the gas phase with supportcd catalysts containing the aforementioned metal chlorides as active components at 130- 250 °C and 5-15 bar. Selectivities of 98-99% (bascd on C₂H₄, HCl) and conversions of 50% C₂H₄ and HCl are obtained.