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 a first 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 with additional oxygen-containing gas and ammonia into a second ammoxidation reactor which contains a catalyst that catalyzes reaction between the alkane, oxygen and ammonia to produce additional unsaturated nitrile. The effluent from the second ammoxidation reactor is fully recycled to the first ammoxidation reactor or to the nitrile recovery unit or it is split into two streams, one of which is recycled to the first ammoxidation reactor and the other of which is recycled to the nitrile recovery unit. |