Abstract
The application of flow reactors in multiphase catalytic reactions represents a promising approach for enhancing the efficiency of this important class of chemical reactions. We developed a simple approach to improve the reactor productivity of multiphase catalytic reactions performed using a flow chemistry unit with a packed bed reactor. Specifically, a tube-in-tube membrane contactor (sparger) integrated in-line with the flow reactor has been successfully applied to the aerobic oxidation of benzyl alcohol to benzaldehyde utilizing a heterogeneous palladium catalyst in the packed bed. We examined the effect of sparger hydrodynamics on reactor productivity quantified by space time yield (STY). Implementation of the sparger, versus segmented flow achieved with the built in gas dosing module (1) increased reactor productivity 4-fold quantified by space time yield while maintaining high selectivity and (2) improved process safety as demonstrated by lower effective operating pressures.
Highlights
Performing aerobic, selective oxidation of alcohols to aldehydes using flow reactors could greatly reduce economic and environmental costs associated with chemical processing [2,8,12]
(sparger) to a flow reactor for we introduced a tube-in-tube membrane contactor examination of the aerobic oxidation of benzyl alcohol by a heterogeneous palladium catalyst using oxygen or air as a model reaction
In contrast with the segmented flow achieved by the X-CubeTM gas dosing module, the sparger solubilized the gas in the liquid phase before entering the packed bed, resulting in simultaneous presentation of the oxidant and reaction preventing overoxidation
Summary
Multiphase catalytic reactions (e.g., hydrogenation and oxidation) are important in the production of petroleum-derived products, commodity and fine chemicals, and pharmaceuticals [1,2,3]. Both homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts have the ability to facilitate selective oxidations using gas oxidants; heterogeneous catalysts are advantageous due to the ease of product separation in continuous reactors [2,12,14,15,16,17,18,19,20] In these solid-liquid-gas reactions, hydrodynamics and wetting are important considerations [5,21]. Catalysts 2019, 9, x FOR PEER REVIEW oxidants; heterogeneous catalysts are advantageous due to the ease of product separation in continuous reactors [2,12,14,15,16,17,18,19,20] The sparger on hydrodynamics and resulting selectivity and reactor and resulting selectivity and reactor productivity are productivity discussed. are discussed
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