Epoxidation process

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9096562-B2
Application number	US-201313950973-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 25, 2013
Priority date	Jul 26, 2012
Publication date	Aug 4, 2015
Grant date	Aug 4, 2015

Abstract

A method for producing ethylene oxide comprising: providing one or more feed components, wherein the one or more feed components contains at least ethylene obtained by dehydrating ethanol; contacting the one or more feed components with a desulfurization catalyst comprising a high surface area support and an amount of silver, wherein at least 20% of the silver is present as oxidized silver; and contacting the one or more feed components with a silver-containing epoxidation catalyst disposed inside an ethylene oxide reactor to form a reaction gas comprising ethylene oxide.

First claim

What we claim is:

1. A method for producing ethylene oxide comprising:
a) providing one or more feed components, wherein the one or more feed components contains at least ethylene obtained by dehydrating ethanol;
b) contacting the one or more feed components with a desulfurization catalyst comprising a high surface area support and an amount of silver, wherein at least 20% of the silver is present as oxidized silver; and
c) contacting the one or more feed components with a silver-containing epoxidation catalyst disposed inside an ethylene oxide reactor to form a reaction gas comprising ethylene oxide.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more feed components further comprises oxygen and a ballast gas.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the process further comprises contacting the one or more feed components with the desulfurization catalyst at a temperature in a range of from about 40° C. to about 400° C.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the process further comprises contacting the one or more feed components with the desulfurization catalyst at a pressure in a range of from 0 atm to 50 atm.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the process further comprises contacting the one or more feed components with said desulfurization catalyst positioned inside a desulfurization chamber that is located outside the ethylene oxide reactor.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the ethylene oxide reactor contains one or more reaction tubes packed with a bed of said desulfurization catalyst and a bed of said silver-containing epoxidation catalyst.

7. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising regenerating the desulfurization catalyst.

8. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the high surface area-alumina support has a surface area of greater than about 100 m 2 /g.

9. The method according to claim 8 , wherein the high surface area alumina is selected from gamma alumina and boehmite.

10. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the desulfurization catalyst comprises about 0.1 wt % to about 30 wt % silver.

11. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more feed components in step (c) has a sulfur concentration of not more than about 2 ppmv.

12. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the desulfurization catalyst contains substantially no alkali metal.

13. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the ethylene is obtained by dehydrating ethanol in a dehydration reactor.

14. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the catalyst has less than 100 ppm sodium.

15. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the desulfurization catalyst is prepared in a process including at least the steps of impregnating a high-surface area alumina support with an ammonia oxalate impregnating solution containing at least silver; and calcining in a nitrogen atmosphere.

16. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the desulfurization catalyst has an efficiency factor of about 0.6%/° C. to about 0.8%/° C.

17. The method according to claim 1 , wherein at least 50% of the silver is present as oxidized silver.

18. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the desulfurization catalyst consists essentially of: (1) an alumina support, and (2) an amount of silver; wherein at least 20% of the silver is present as oxidized silver.

19. The method according to claim 8 , wherein the high surface area alumina is selected from alumina hydroxides, alumina oxide hydroxides and alumina oxides.

Assignees

• Scient Design Co

Inventors

• Rokicki Andrzej
• Durand Jason
• Morin Rudy Anthony
• Suchanek Wojciech

Classifications

• B01J35/45

  Nanoparticles · CPC title

• B01J35/393

  Metal or metal oxide crystallite size · CPC title

• B01J35/1019

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic

• B01J35/0013

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic

• B01J37/08

  Heat treatment {(B01J37/0009, B01J37/0018 take precedence)} · CPC title