Epoxidation reactions and operating conditions thereof

摘要

A method of producing an alkylene oxide includes passing a reaction mixture comprising alkylene, oxygen and a gaseous chlorine-containing promoter species over a supported catalyst containing silver and a promoting amount of rhenium to undergo an epoxidation reaction at a first operating condition. The method further includes subsequently performing the epoxidation reaction at a preferred operating condition. The preferred operating condition is characterized by an efficiency of the epoxidation reaction toward the alkylene oxide where the efficiency is lower than that of a maximum efficiency achievable at an operating temperature corresponding to the preferred operating condition.

主权项

1. A method of determining a preferred operating condition of an epoxidation reaction in presence of a supported catalyst comprising silver and a promoting amount of rhenium, and in presence of a gaseous chlorine-containing promoter species; comprising: determining a derivative of efficiency to productivity of the epoxidation reaction as a function of the overall catalyst chloriding effectiveness value at a fixed operating temperature, wherein the preferred operating condition is characterized by a derivative which is in a range of about −1 to about −4 when the efficiency of the epoxidation reaction to form alkylene oxide is expressed in percent and productivity of the epoxidation reaction is expressed as the concentration of alkylene oxide in the reactor outlet stream in mole percent.