THE UTILIZATION OF ZIRCONIUM AND ZIRCONIUM BASED ALLOYS FOR THE CONTAINMENT OF HALOGEN CONTAINING ENVIRONMENTS USED IN THE PRODUCTION OF OLEFINS, ALCOHOLS, ETHERS, ETHOXYLATES GLYCOLS, AND OLEFIN OXIDES FROM ALKANES

摘要

This invention relates to a process for the production of olefins, alcohols, ethers, ethoxylates, glycols, and olefin oxides from alkanes in a halogen, preferably bromine or chlorine, system, wherein there are halogenation (reaction of halogen with the alkanes), oxidation (reaction of alkyl halide with a metal oxide), optional neutralization (reaction of hydrogen halide and metal oxide), and regeneration (reaction of metal halide with air, oxygen, or other oxygen gas containing mixtures) reactions which take place in the process and wherein at least one of the reactions wherein water and halogen and/or hydrogen halide are present is carried out in reactors made from metallurgy including zirconium and/or zirconium-based alloys that contain varying amounts of alloying elements such as tin, niobium, chromium, iron, oxygen, and nickel. Preferably, this same metallurgy is used in the fabrication of separation and purification equipment for the process.