Continuous Hydrogenation of Alkynol in a Continuous Oscillatory Baffled Reactor

In this paper, we report, for the first time, that a multiphase catalytic hydrogenation of 3-butyn-2-ol over Pd/Al2O3 catalyst has successfully been running in a continuous oscillatory baffled reactor (COBR) for over 12 h. Catalyst stability and attrition were examined, the results show that there was no catalyst loss for the whole duration of operation, the catalyst was stable for 9 h with 97% selectivity at a target conversion of 95%. Catalyst deactivation thereafter was assessed at a rate of 0.03% per h, this means that it would take 17 days (or 2040 cycles) of operation to achieve 50% of the target conversion. This is significantly better than the corresponding batch operation where half catalyst activity was reached after 32 cycles. In addition, one of the advantages of using COBR is that it allows the screening of several operational parameters in a single reaction run, as the steady state of operation was readily attained within 1 to 1.5 residence times.

Automated summary

This paper presents the successful multiphase catalytic hydrogenation of 3-butyn-2-ol over Pd/Al2O3 catalyst in a continuous oscillatory baffled reactor (COBR) for over 12 hours. The catalyst stability and attrition were examined, showing no loss of catalyst during the operation and a slow deactivation rate, indicating significant advantages over batch operation.