Method for the production of glycols from sorbitol

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10414708-B2
Application number	US-201716319960-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 25, 2017
Priority date	Jul 27, 2016
Publication date	Sep 17, 2019
Grant date	Sep 17, 2019

Abstract

Implementations of the disclosed subject matter provide a process for producing ethylene glycol and propylene glycol from a sorbitol feed which may include contacting the sorbitol feed with hydrogen in a reactor in the presence of a solvent and a bi-functional catalyst system. The bi-functional catalyst system may include a first catalyst comprising a copper compound, a zinc compound, and an additional metal compound and a second catalyst comprising sodium carbonate.

First claim

That which is claimed is:

1. A process for producing ethylene glycol and propylene glycol from a sorbitol feed comprising:
contacting the sorbitol feed with hydrogen in a reactor in the presence of a solvent and a bi-functional catalyst system comprising:
1) a first catalyst comprising a copper compound, a zinc compound, and an additional metal compound, and
2) a second catalyst comprising sodium carbonate.

2. The process of claim 1 , wherein the additional metal compound comprises at least one selected from the group consisting of: zirconium, aluminum, magnesium, praseodymium, neodymium, promethium, gadolinium, yttrium, lanthanum, samarium, thorium, cerium, europium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium, lutetium, titanium, scandium, and mixtures thereof.

3. The process of claim 1 , wherein the additional metal compound comprises lanthanum.

4. The process of claim 3 , wherein the first catalyst further comprises at least one metal selected from the group consisting of: zirconium, aluminum, magnesium, praseodymium, neodymium, promethium, gadolinium, yttrium, samarium, thorium, cerium, europium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium, lutetium, titanium, scandium, and mixtures thereof.

5. The process of claim 1 , wherein the concentration of sorbitol in the sorbitol feed is between about 1 wt % to 75 wt % sorbitol.

6. The process of claim 5 , wherein the ratio of the amount of the first catalyst to the second catalyst is between about 0.3 to 1.

7. The process of claim 6 , wherein the total amount of the first and second catalysts is 0.3-0.5 wt % on the basis of the total reactants and solvent entering the reactor.

8. The process of claim 1 , wherein the sorbitol feed is the product of a hydrogenation process of a C6 monomer containing carbohydrate feed.

9. The process of claim 1 , further comprising obtaining a product stream from the reactor comprising a yield of at least 10 wt % EG.

10. The process of claim 1 , further comprising obtaining a product stream from the reactor comprising a yield of at least 15 wt % PG.

Assignees

• Shell Oil Co

Inventors

• Edulji Smita
• Murray Brendan Dermot

Classifications

• B01J23/80

  with zinc, cadmium or mercury · CPC title

• C07C31/202

  Ethylene glycol · CPC title

• B01J23/83

  with rare earths or actinides · CPC title

• C07C29/60 Primary

  by elimination of -OH groups, e.g. by dehydration (C07C29/34 takes precedence) · CPC title

• C07C45/66

  by dehydration · CPC title