Method for producing oxidized olefin through olefin epoxidation

Abstract

A process for producing an alkylene oxide by olefin epoxidation, wherein said process comprises the steps of: (1) in a first olefin epoxidation condition, in the presence of a first solid catalyst, a first mixed stream containing a solvent, an olefin and H2O2 is subjected to an epoxidation in one or more fixed bed reactors and/or one or more moving bed reactors until the conversion of H2O2 reaches 50%-95%, then, optionally, the resulting reaction mixture obtained in the step (1) is subjected to a separation to obtain a first stream free of H2O2 and a second stream containing the unreacted H2O2, and the olefin is introduced to the second stream to produce a second mixed stream, or optionally, the olefin is introduced to the reaction mixture obtained in the step (1) to produce a second mixed stream; (2) in a second olefin epoxidation condition, the reaction mixture obtained in the step (1) or the second mixed stream obtained in the step (1) and a second solid catalyst are introduced to one or more slurry bed reactors to conduct an epoxidation until the total conversion of H2O2 reaches 98% or more, with a proviso that said process for producing the alkylene oxide by olefin epoxidation has an selectivity for the alkylene oxide of 90% or more. The process of the present invention combines the slurry bed reactor with the fixed bed reactor and/or the moving bed reactor so as to overcome the disadvantages of the low conversion of H2O2 in the case that only the fixed bed reactor and/or the moving bed reactor are used, and the low selectivity for the target alkylene oxide in the case that only the slurry bed reactor is used.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.