Study on process integration of the production of propylene oxide and hydrogen peroxide

Abstract

Titanium silicalite (TS-1) is an effective catalyst for selective oxidation of hydrocarbons and their derivatives with hydrogen peroxide under mild conditions. The industrialization of these processes is at present penalized by the high cost of hydrogen peroxide. The process integration of the production of propylene oxide (PO) with the production of hydrogen peroxide (H 2O 2) by the anthraquinone route is presented in this paper. Two integrated processes are discussed: in the first process, the solvent for the epoxidation step is recycled to extract H 2O 2 from the anthraquinone working solution; while in the second process, two oxidation processes, the epoxidation of propylene and the oxidation of anthrahydroquinone, are carried out in one circulating reactor. The influences of various reagents on the performance of TS-1 and the compatibility of the two oxidation processes were investigated. The results show that it is better to integrate the production of PO with the production of H 2O 2 when TS-1 is used as catalyst.