Epoxidation process

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9975865-B2
Application number	US-201715651191-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 17, 2017
Priority date	Jul 18, 2016
Publication date	May 22, 2018
Grant date	May 22, 2018

Abstract

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 an ethylene oxide catalyst bed disposed in a reactor tube, the ethylene oxide catalyst bed comprising: (1) an upstream ethylene oxide catalyst having a first cesium concentration and (2) a downstream ethylene oxide catalyst having a second cesium concentration, wherein the first cesium concentration is higher than the second cesium concentration.

First claim

What I claim is:

1. A method for producing ethylene oxide comprising:
a) providing one or more feed components, wherein the one or more feed components contain at least ethylene;
b) contacting the one or more feed components with an ethylene oxide catalyst bed disposed in a reactor tube, the ethylene oxide catalyst bed comprising: (1) an upstream ethylene oxide catalyst having a first cesium concentration and (2) a downstream ethylene oxide catalyst having a second cesium concentration, wherein the first cesium concentration is higher than the second cesium concentration.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ethylene is obtained by dehydrating ethanol.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ethylene is obtained from petroleum sources.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ethylene oxide catalyst bed comprises from about 10 wt % to about 90 wt % of the upstream ethylene oxide catalyst and about 10 wt % to about 90 wt % of the downstream epoxidation catalyst.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first cesium concentration is from about 200 ppm to about 1000 ppm and the second cesium concentration is from about 100 ppm to about 700 ppm.

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

7. A system for producing ethylene oxide comprising:
(a) a source of ethylene;
(b) an ethylene oxide reactor containing a plurality of reactor tubes; and
(c) an ethylene oxide catalyst bed disposed in each reactor tube, the ethylene oxide catalyst bed containing an upstream ethylene oxide catalyst having a first cesium concentration and a downstream ethylene oxide catalyst having a second cesium concentration, wherein the first cesium concentration is higher than the second cesium concentration.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the upstream silver-containing epoxidation catalyst comprises from about 10 wt % to about 90 wt % of the epoxidation catalyst bed and the downstream silver-containing epoxidation catalyst comprises from about 10 wt % to about 90 wt % of the epoxidation catalyst bed.

9. The system of claim 7 , wherein the first cesium concentration is from about 200 ppm to about 1000 ppm and the second cesium concentration is from about 100 ppm to about 700 ppm.

10. The system of claim 7 , wherein the ethylene is obtained by dehydrating ethanol.

11. The system of claim 7 , wherein the ethylene is obtained from petroleum sources.

Assignees

• Scient Design Co

Inventors

• Padia Ashok S

Classifications

• C07D301/10 Primary

  with catalysts containing silver or gold · CPC title

• B01J23/50

  Silver · CPC title

• C01D17/003

  Compounds of alkali metals · CPC title

• B01J23/04

  Alkali metals · CPC title

• C07D303/06

  in which the oxirane rings are condensed with a carbocyclic ring system having three or more relevant rings · CPC title