BACKGROUND:The catalytic direct synthesis of hydrogen peroxide is a highly interesting alternative process to avoid the current anthraquinone route because implies significant sustainability improvements. Among all the peroxide applications, its use as electronic chemical requires very low metallic content. The employment of direct synthesis peroxide as raw material for ultrapurification process has not been investigated before, so its viability is still pending of evaluation.
RESULTS:Although the improvements of the catalyst or reactor performances of the direct synthesis process were not defined as objectives of the work, a maximal peroxide concentration of 2.3% was obtained, which is a very good result considering the low pressure used. Some relationships between the measured metallic concentrations in the obtained chemical and the operation conditions have been very useful to identify the most important conditions (selection of appropriate quality for the chemicals and proper materials for the installation) to promote the production of hydrogen peroxide with low metallic content. The technical competitiveness of this alternative ultrapurification process was clearly demonstrated as the number of required membrane stages (from 1 to 6 depending on the product quality) is lower than the required one by the traditional case. Besides, the process can be considered economically viable if the direct synthesis peroxide can be produced with a total cost below 36.5 $/m 3 .
CONCLUSION:Further investigation, specifically focused to holistic approaches, is still necessary in order to assess the total costs of hydrogen peroxide production by direct synthesis. This way, the current available information could be complemented and the competitiveness of this direct route to obtain hydrogen peroxide for electronic grade chemical production could be more clearly defined.