Direct epoxidation of propene with hydrogen peroxide vapor was conducted in a microstructured reactor
containing TS-1 catalyst coatings. At 140 °C, 1 bar, 5 vol % hydrogen peroxide, and 15 vol % propene,
productivities of more than 1 kg of propene oxide per kg of catalyst and hour are obtained in lab scale, which
is in an industrially highly relevant range. Excellent selectivities to propene oxide based on propene of >90%
were reached. Potential and need for improvement lie in the propylene oxide selectivity based on hydrogen
peroxide, which was observed to be about 25%. By increasing the molar excess of propene to about 6.6,
propylene oxide selectivities related to hydrogen peroxide of up to 60% have been observed in the pilot
plant.
Heterogeneously catalyzed gas-phase reactions are of great technical and economic importance in the chemical industry. Enormous resources continue to be expended on the development and optimization of catalysts, technical concepts for reactors, and/or operating conditions. Microreaction technology is very well suited to making extremely valuable contributions here in many different ways. On account of the geometric ratios and also the high specific surface areas, heat-and mass-transport limitations can generally be largely excluded or drastically reduced. This allows process conditions that cannot be realized in most conventional apparatus, as is convincingly demonstrated by, for example, the possibility of safely carrying out reactions involving explosive mixtures.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.