New Two-Step Process for Propene Oxide Production (HPPO) Based on the Direct Synthesis of Hydrogen Peroxide

In previous papers, we showed that (i) neutral solutions of hydrogen peroxide can be safely obtained by the direct reaction of H-2 and O-2 gas mixtures in the presence of Pd-loaded sulfonic acid resins and (ii) low molecular weight olefins can be successfully epoxidized using aqueous solutions of H2O2 in the presence of amorphous Ti/SiO2 catalysts. Against this background, this paper seeks to go one step further in our on-site H2O2 strategy by combining the direct synthesis of nonacidic H2O2 solutions with the catalyzed epoxidation of alkenes with hydrogen peroxide. In a first step, we optimized the reaction conditions for the direct synthesis of H2O2 working in a semibatch reactor Aqueous solutions of 9 wt % H2O2 were then used in the epoxidation of oct-1-ene on a Ti-loaded amorphous silica catalyst, and reaction conditions were optimized. Finally, the propene epoxidation reaction was conducted in a continuous mode under the optimum reaction conditions selected (343 K, H2O4 catalyst ratio = 1:4, propene/catalyst ratio = 25, residence time 45 min). At steady-state, the conversion level of H2O2 reached 96% with a selectivity of hydrogen peroxide to propene oxide of 95%. After 135 h of reaction time, a slight decrease in the selectivity of H2O2 to epoxide was observed, with a decrease of H2O2 conversion from 96 to 80%. This catalyst deactivation is reversible, as original activity is fully recovered upon regeneration in air at 873 K.