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Europaisches Patentamt (19) European Patent Office Office europeenpeen des brevets EP 0 755 371 B1 (12) EUROPEAN PATENT SPECIFICATION (45) Date of publication and mention (51) intci.6: C07C 37/60, C07C 39/04 of the grant of the patent: 04.08.1999 Bulletin 1999/31 (86) International application number: PCT/RU95/00066 (21) Application number: 95916877.4 (87) International publication number: (22) Date of filing: 12.04.1995 WO 95/27691 (19.10.1995 Gazette 1995/45) (54) METHOD FOR PRODUCTION OF PHENOL AND ITS DERIVATIVES VERFAHREN ZUR HERSTELLUNG VON PHENOL UND SEINEN DERIVATEN PROCEDE DE PRODUCTION DE PHENOL ET DE SES DERIVES (84) Designated Contracting States: (74) Representative: Colens, Alain et al AT BE CH DE DK ES FR GB GR IE IT LI LU MC NL c/o Bureau Colens SPRL PT SE rue Frans Merjay 21 Designated Extension States: 1050 Bruxelles (BE) LTSI (56) References cited: (30) Priority: 12.04.1994 RU 94013070 US-A- 5 001 280 US-A- 5 055 623 US-A-5 110 995 (43) Date of publication of application: 29.01.1997 Bulletin 1997/05 • CHEMISTRY LETTERS, no. 6, June 1988 TOKYO, JP, pages 953-956, E. SUZUKI, ET AL.: (73) Proprietor: Solutia Inc. 'Hydroxylation of benzene with dinitrogen St. Louis, Missouri 63166-6760 (US) monoxide over H-ZSM-5 zeolite' cited in the application (72) Inventors: • APPLIED CATALYSIS A: GENERAL, vol. 86, no. • PANOV, Gennady Ivanovich 2, 1992 AMSTERDAM, NL, pages 139-146, R. Novosibirsk, 630090 (RU) BURCH, ET AL.: 'Direct partial oxidation of • KHARITONOV, Alexandr Sergeevich benzene to phenol on zeolite catalysts' cited in Novosibirsk, 630090 (RU) the application • SHEVELEVA, Galina Anatolievna Novosibirsk, 630060 (RU) DO CO io Is- Note: Within nine months from the publication of the mention of the grant of the European patent, any person may give notice the Patent Office of the Notice of shall be filed in o to European opposition to European patent granted. opposition a written reasoned statement. It shall not be deemed to have been filed until the opposition fee has been paid. (Art. a. 99(1) European Patent Convention). LU Printed by Jouve, 75001 PARIS (FR) EP 0 755 371 B1 Description [0001] Disclosed herein is a method for the production of phenol and its derivatives by partial oxidation of benzene or a benzene derivative by nitrous oxide. 5 [0002] The production of phenol by partial oxidation of benzene using nitrous oxide over a variety of catalysts ranging from vanadium pentoxide on silica to zeolites, e.g. ZSM-5 and ZSM-11 zeolite catalysts, at elevated temperatures, e. g. 300 to 450°C, has been disclosed. In this reaction benzene is partially oxidized by an excess amount of nitrous oxide producing phenol and by-product nitrogen. See, for instance, Suzuki et al., 1 988 Chemistry Letters of the Chem- istry Society of Japan at pages 953-956. In United States Patent 5,001 ,280 Gubelmann et al. discloses the advantage 10 of oxidizing benzene with nitrous oxide at 400 °C using a zeolite catalyst having a silica to alumina ratio greater than 90. [0003] In United States Patent 5,110,995 Kharitonov et al. disclose that changes in the molar ratio of benzene to nitrous oxide does not substantially affect the yields of phenol but declare a preference for a reaction mixture of stoi- chiometric composition. Although benzene derivatives can also be oxidized by nitrous oxide to provide the correspond- ing phenol derivative, phenol is the most important commodity chemical in the class with uses in the manufacture of is phenolic resins and the synthesis of chemicals such as caprolactam and adipic acid. [0004] The partial oxidation of benzene or a benzene derivative by nitrous oxide to phenol or a phenol derivative is highly exothermic. The liberation of significant quantities of heat, i.e. about 62 kilocalories per mole of phenol produced, leads to overheating of the catalyst resulting in lowering of reaction selectivity due to intensification of side reactions. Overheating can also diminish catalyst life. 20 [0005] Various approaches for avoiding overheating only make the process more complex. For instance, the reaction can be conducted in a tubular reactor with heat extracted by a circulating heat transfer fluid in an intertubular space. Alternatively, the reaction can be carried out in a fluid bed reactor equipped with internal heat exchangers. As the reaction becomes more exothermic, e.g. due to higher conversion, more complex equipment is required to remove the generated heat of reaction. For instance, in some cases the heat capacity of the reaction mixture is increased by 25 introducing a high heat capacity component to reduce the level of adiabatic temperature increase. [0006] Despite its simplicity, the use of high heat capacity components is rare because of requirements for such an additive component are very stringent. For example, in addition to having a high heat capacity, the component must also be inert under reaction conditions, must not poison the catalyst and must be easily separable from the reaction products. In the case of the oxidation of methanol to formaldehyde, Boreskov in Russian Pateny 804628 has suggested 30 adding saturated hydrocarbons such as ethane and propane to the reaction mixture to absorb heat. [0007] To avoid overheating in laboratory practice, the catalyst is usually placed in a tubular reactor of small diameter or diluted with quartz chips. The reaction is also often reported as being conducted using a small concentration of the starting materials. For instance, Burch et al. in Applied Catalysis A: General, 86 (1 992)1 39-1 46, indicate that the optimal reaction mixture contains about 4 mole percent of benzene and a large excess of nitrous oxide. And, Gubelmann et 35 al. discloses in United States Patent 5,055,623 a reaction process using excess nitrous oxide where the reaction mixture has a molar ratio of nitrous oxide to benzene ranging from as 1 to 10. Among the drawbacks of these prior art reaction systems are overheating of the catalyst, low reactor capacity, low conversion of nitrous oxide and the gener- ation of undesirable amounts of oxidized byproducts such as hydroquinone resulting in a less than optimal selectivity towards the desired phenol product. 40 SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0008] The present invention provides a simplified process for the catalytic partial oxidation of benzene or substituted benzene to the corresponding phenol with a multitude of advantages by employing a benzene and nitrous oxide feed 45 stream that is rich in excess of the benzene reactant, i.e. has a molar deficiency of nitrous oxide. For instance, the process of this invention can allow for lower temperature rise of the reaction mixture due to adiabatic operation. The process of this invention can provide a higher selectivity in the desired oxidized product, e.g. phenol. The process of this invention can produce a reaction gas stream having a higher concentration of phenol. The process of this invention can provide a higher conversion of nitrous oxide. The process of this invention can provide for substantially higher so catalyst production efficiency. And, the process of this invention can allow for operation using a non-explosive gas mixture. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 55 [0009] In the catalytic oxidation process of this invention, aromatic compounds, e.g. benzene or substituted benzene, is partially oxidized to the corresponding phenol or substituted phenol by reaction with nitrous oxide over a catalyst. The process can be conducted at elevated temperature, e.g. 250 to 500°C or higher, e.g. up to at least 600°C using a molar excess of the aromatic compound to be oxidized. For example, contrary to prior art practice, a reactant feed 2 EP 0 755 371 B1 mixture according to this invention would have a molar deficiency of nitrous oxide, i.e. a molar ratio of nitrous oxide to aromatic compound less than 1, e.g. in the range of 0.95 to 0.01 or lower. In preferred aspects of this invention, the molar ratio of nitrous oxide to aromatic compound is less than 0.5. In the case of oxidation of benzene to phenol a preferred molar ratio of nitrous oxide to benzene is in the range of 0.9 to 0.01, often more preferably in the range of 5 0.1 to 0.01. [0010] The prior art identifies a variety of catalysts that are useful in the partial oxidation of benzene, e.g. vanadium pentoxide on silica and acidified zeolites. For many applications, ZSM-5 and ZSM-11 zeolite catalysts containing a catalytically effective amount of iron have significant advantages over other catalysts. Preferred catalysts are acidified ZSM-5 and ZSM-11 zeolite containing iron. The productivity of the process can be enhanced by using a zeolite that 10 has been hydrothermally treated, e.g. exposed to up to 1 00% water vapor in air at about 500 to 900 °C for about 2 hours. [0011] A major distinction of the process of this invention is that the reaction is carried out with a molar deficiency of the nitrous oxide. In addition to vaporized aromatic compound and nitrous oxide the reactant gas feed to the catalyst can contain a variety of other gases as diluents or contaminants. Diluents typically will not adversely effect the desired reaction to produce the oxidized aromatic product, e.g. phenol, and typically comprise helium, argon, nitrogen, carbon is dioxide or other such gases or mixtures thereof. Contaminants are characterized as species that adversely effect the desired reaction to produce the oxidized aromatic product whether by participating in a competing reaction or poisoning of the catalyst. The amount of contaminants is preferably very low, but in view of the practical difficulty of providing pure gases in industrial applications, certain low levels of contaminants can be tolerated.