Process for the production of nitriles

摘要

A process for the production of an ethylenically unsaturated nitrile from a hydrocarbon feed stream comprised of a mixture of an alkene and an alkane by reaction with an oxygen-containing gas and ammonia. The alkene is converted to unsaturated nitrile by reaction with the oxygen and ammonia in the presence of a suitable catalyst in an ammoxidation reactor; the nitrile product is recovered from the product stream; some of the byproduct carbon oxides and some of the inert gas introduced into the system with the reactants are removed from product stream and the remainder of this stream, now rich in unreacted alkene and alkane, and containing the rest of the byproduct gases and inert gases is introduced into a reactor which contains a catalyst that causes alkane contained in the gas stream to convert to the corresponding alkene. The effluent from the dehydrogenation reactor is recycled to the ammoxidation reactor.