Highly Selective Epoxidation of Propylene in a Low-Pressure Continuous Slurry Reactor and the Regeneration of Catalyst

Abstract

The epoxidation of propylene to propylene oxide with H2O2 using a micron-sized TS-1 catalyst with hollow structure in a low-pressure continuous slurry reactor was investigated. Under the optimized reaction conditions, the process was successfully run for 247 h with superior selectivity (98.7%) and yield (96.4%) of propylene oxide. The reaction pressure was only 0.23 MPa which was much lower than that in the fixed-bed, and the catalyst stability was excellent. Though the deactivation of catalyst occurred after 247 h, the selectivity to propylene oxide was still kept above 97.5%, which was significantly better than the experimental results in the fixed-bed reactor. Washing deactivated catalyst with H2O2 can easily remove bulky byproducts deposited inside micropores and recover catalytic activity. This research verified the safety and high catalyst efficiency of epoxidation of propylene in a slurry reactor.