Process for the epoxidation of an olefin

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10428035-B2
Application number	US-201615778337-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 1, 2016
Priority date	Nov 26, 2015
Publication date	Oct 1, 2019
Grant date	Oct 1, 2019

Abstract

In a process for the epoxidation of an olefin by continuously reacting the olefin with hydrogen peroxide in a methanol solvent on a fixed bed epoxidation catalyst comprising a titanium zeolite, the hydrogen peroxide is used as an aqueous hydrogen peroxide solution made by an anthraquinone process, the aqueous hydrogen peroxide solution is mixed with methanol to give a feed mixture and this feed mixture is filtered before being contacted with the fixed bed epoxidation catalyst.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A process for the epoxidation of an olefin by continuously reacting the olefin with hydrogen peroxide in a methanol solvent on a fixed bed epoxidation catalyst comprising a titanium zeolite, wherein:
a) hydrogen peroxide is used as an aqueous hydrogen peroxide solution made by an anthraquinone process;
b) the aqueous hydrogen peroxide solution is mixed with methanol to give a feed mixture; and
c) said feed mixture is filtered before being contacted with the fixed bed epoxidation catalyst.

2. The process of claim 1 , wherein the aqueous hydrogen peroxide solution is mixed with at least 50% of the methanol used for reacting the olefin with hydrogen peroxide.

3. The process of claim 1 , wherein the feed mixture is filtered through a filter medium having an average pore size of from 0.1 to 50 μm.

4. The process of claim 1 , wherein the filter medium is selected from aramid polymers, polyolefins, polyamides, fluorinated polymers and sintered metals.

5. The process of claim 1 , wherein the olefin is propene.

6. The process of claim 1 , wherein the filtered feed mixture is mixed with the olefin before being contacted with the fixed bed epoxidation catalyst.

7. The process of claim 1 , wherein the fixed bed epoxidation catalyst is placed in the tubes of a vertically arranged tube bundle reactor and the filtered feed mixture is distributed to the top of said tubes through orifices of a liquid distributor.

8. The process of claim 7 wherein the filtered feed mixture is combined with the olefin before being distributed to the top of the tubes.

9. The process of claim 7 , wherein the filtered feed mixture and the olefin are distributed to the top of said tubes through orifices of two separate liquid distributors.

10. The process of claim 1 , wherein the feed mixture is filtered with a filter comprising a filter medium and a gas separator upstream of said filter medium, and said gas separator is purged with an inert gas.

11. The process of claim 10 , wherein the filter comprises a temperature sensor, a pressure sensor and a safety valve connected with a dump vessel, and the safety valve is opened for emptying the filter when the temperature or the pressure in the filter exceeds a preset safety limit.

Assignees

• Evonik Degussa Gmbh
• Thyssenkrupp Ind Solutions Ag

Inventors

• Pascaly Matthias
• Bärz Manfred
• Brendel Marc
• Jahn Robert
• Schemel Jürgen
• Dopfer Michael

Classifications

• B01J2219/32279

  Tubes or cylinders · CPC title

• C07D303/04

  containing only hydrogen and carbon atoms in addition to the ring oxygen atoms · CPC title

• B01J2219/0027

  Pressure relief · CPC title

• B01J19/2475

  Membrane reactors · CPC title

• C07D301/12 Primary

  with hydrogen peroxide or inorganic peroxides or peracids · CPC title