Process for epoxidation of olefins

Abstract

The invention described herein relates to a process for the catalytic epoxidation of olefins with hydrogen peroxide in a multiphase reaction mixture comprising an liquid aqueous hydrogen peroxide rich phase containing an organic solvent having a solubility in water of at least 10 % by weight at 25 DEG C and an liquid organic olefin rich phase.

Description

Background technique [0001] From EP-A 100 119 and EP-A 230 949 it is known that propene can be converted to propylene oxide by means of hydrogen peroxide if titanium-containing zeolites are used as catalysts. [0002] Unreacted hydrogen peroxide cannot be economically recovered from the epoxidation reaction mixture. Furthermore, unreacted hydrogen peroxide involves additional work and expense in the processing of the reaction mixture. Therefore, it is preferred to carry out the epoxidation of propylene with an excess of propylene until a substantial amount of hydrogen peroxide is converted. In order to achieve high conversion of hydrogen peroxide, it is advantageous to use a continuous flow reaction system. Such a reaction system may comprise one or more continuous flow reactors or two or more flow mixing reactors connected in series. Examples of flow mixing reactors are: stirred tank reactors with liquid phase circulation, circulation reactors, fluidized bed reactors and f...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

Although by taking said measures a hydrogen peroxide conversion of 98.4% could be achieved, the selectivity to propylene oxide of 80.3% is still too low for the industrial application of the process