Process for producing styrene

Abstract

A process for producing styrene by oxidative dehydrogentation of ethylbenzene, wherein the dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene is conducted through at least the following steps (1) to (3), whereby styrene can be produced in a high yield by controlling the lowering of the selectivity of an oxidation catalyst in hydrogen oxidation by removing an alkaline substance contained in the reaction mixture to be fed to step (2) beforehand: step (1): a step of dehydrogenating ethylbenzene in the presence of a dehydrogenation catalyst to obtain a reaction mixture containing styrene and hydrogen; step (2): a step of bringing the reaction mixture into contact with an oxidation catalyst to selectively oxidize the hydrogen contained in the mixture, thereby forming water; step (3): a step of bringing the oxidized mixture into contact with a dehydrogenation catalyst to dehydrogenate the unreacted ethylbenzene contained in the mixture, thereby obtaining styrene.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.