Abstract
Hydrogen peroxide is an important chemical of increasing demand in today’s world. Currently, the anthraquinone autoxidation process dominates the industrial production of hydrogen peroxide. Herein, hydrogen and oxygen are reacted indirectly in the presence of quinones to yield hydrogen peroxide. Owing to the complexity and multi-step nature of the process, it is advantageous to replace the process with an easier and straightforward one. The direct synthesis of hydrogen peroxide from its constituent reagents is an effective and clean route to achieve this goal. Factors such as water formation due to thermodynamics, explosion risk, and the stability of the hydrogen peroxide produced hinder the applicability of this process at an industrial level. Currently, the catalysis for the direct synthesis reaction is palladium based and the research into finding an effective and active catalyst has been ongoing for more than a century now. Palladium in its pure form, or alloyed with certain metals, are some of the new generation of catalysts that are extensively researched. Additionally, to prevent the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide to water, the process is stabilized by adding certain promoters such as mineral acids and halides. A major part of today’s research in this field focusses on the reactor and the mode of operation required for synthesizing hydrogen peroxide. The emergence of microreactor technology has helped in setting up this synthesis in a continuous mode, which could possibly replace the anthraquinone process in the near future. This review will focus on the recent findings of the scientific community in terms of reaction engineering, catalyst and reactor design in the direct synthesis of hydrogen peroxide.
Highlights
Hydrogen peroxide (H2 O2 ) is a colorless, odorless, and slightly acidic liquid used mainly as an oxidant in chemical synthesis [1,2,3]
This review will focus on the recent findings of the scientific community in terms of reaction engineering, catalyst and reactor design in the direct synthesis of hydrogen peroxide
This brings up an important question: why is the AO process still practiced at an industrial level if it is not sustainable? The answer: operating the AO process is economically feasible at a scale of 1 × 105 tons per annum producing high concentrations of H2 O2, which are diluted prior to use
Summary
Hydrogen peroxide (H2 O2 ) is a colorless, odorless, and slightly acidic liquid used mainly as an oxidant in chemical synthesis [1,2,3]. It is an atom efficient, benign, and eco-friendly oxidant that produces water or oxygen as a degradation product, depending on the catalyst used [4,5]. Catalysts 2018, 8, 379 industry needs higher H2 O2 concentrations (ranging from 70–90%) for cleaning and anti-corrosion purposes. Only the chemical processes are capable of industrial production [3,7] in an economical manner and only these will be discussed in detail in this work
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