Olefin epoxidation with moderator management
AssigneeScientific Design Company, Inc.
InventorsXiankuan Zhang, Andrew D. Schmitz
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Abstract
A moderator management process that can be employed during an epoxidation process is disclosed. The disclosed moderator management process provides optimum catalyst performance without having to rely on a trial and error or using elaborate equations as disclosed in the prior art. In the disclosed moderator management process, the optimum halide-containing moderator concentrations can be determined by maintaining ΔEa from 30 kJ/mol to 300 kJ/mol, wherein ΔEa is the difference in activation energies between the reaction to remove halide from the surface of the epoxidation catalyst and the reaction to deposit halide on the surface of the epoxidation catalyst.
Claims20
A process for epoxidation of an olefin, the process comprising:
- reacting a feed gas composition comprising an olefin, oxygen and a halide-containing moderator having a first optimized moderator concentration in the presence of an epoxidation catalyst and at a first temperature;
- increasing the first temperature to a second temperature;
- and
- increasing, at the second temperature, the first optimized moderator concentration to a second optimized moderator concentration, wherein the first and second optimized moderator concentrations are determined by maintaining a ΔEa from 30 kJ/mol to 300 kJ/mol, wherein ΔEa is the difference in activation energies between the reaction to remove halide from the surface of the epoxidation catalyst and the reaction to deposit halide on the surface of the epoxidation catalyst.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.