Optimized liquid-phase oxidation
AssigneeEastman Chemical Company
InventorsAlan George Wonders, Lee Reynolds Partin, Wayne Scott Strasser, Marcel de Vreede, Puneet Gupta
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Abstract
Disclosed is an optimized process and apparatus for more efficiently and economically carrying out the liquid-phase oxidation of an oxidizable compound. Such liquid-phase oxidation is carried out in a bubble column reactor that provides for a highly efficient reaction at relatively low temperatures. When the oxidized compound is para-xylene and the product from the oxidation reaction is crude terephthalic acid (CTA), such CTA product can be purified and separated by more economical techniques than could be employed if the CTA were formed by a conventional high-temperature oxidation process.
Claims10
A process comprising:
- (a) introducing a feed stream comprising para-xylene into a reaction zone of a bubble column reactor;
- (b) introducing one or more oxidant streams comprising molecular oxygen into said reaction zone, wherein said reaction zone has a maximum diameter (D), wherein a majority of said molecular oxygen enters said reaction zone within about 0.25 D of the bottom of said reaction zone;
- and
- (c) oxidizing at least a portion of said para-xylene in a liquid phase of a three-phase reaction medium contained in said reaction zone, wherein said oxidizing causes at least a portion of said para-xylene to form solid crude terephthalic particles in said reaction medium
- wherein each of said one or more oxidant streams introduced into the reaction zone has oxygen present in an amount ranging from 5 mole % to 40 mole % and wherein said reaction medium comprises in the range of from about 5 to about 40 weight percent solids on a time-averaged and volume-averaged basis.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.