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GREENING OF OXIDATION CATALYSIS THROUGH IMPROVED CATALYST AND PROCESS DESIGN
Citation:
Gonzalez*, M A., R L. Smith*, AND T Becker**. GREENING OF OXIDATION CATALYSIS THROUGH IMPROVED CATALYST AND PROCESS DESIGN . Presented at AIChE, San Francisco, CA, November 15 - 19, 2003.
Impact/Purpose:
To inform the public
Description:
Greening of Oxidation Catalysis Through Improved Catalysts and Process Design
Michael A. Gonzalez*, Thomas Becker, and Raymond Smith
United State Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, National Risk Management Research Laboratory, 26 West Martin Luther King Drive, Mail Stop 466, Cincinnati, Ohio 45268
gonzalez.michael@epa.gov
The twelve principles of green chemistry provide a foundation and pathway which allows researchers to incorporate greenness into existing reactions or when developing new technologies. Research from our laboratory has adopted many of these principles and utilizes them as a major component of our research philosophy. Some of the principles incorporated include atom economy, green catalyst development, elimination of waste and by-product formation and energy conservation to name a few.
An area of research that can strongly benefit from the philosophy of green chemistry is the selective oxidation of hydrocarbons. This industry experiences costs, both environmental and monetary, which are associated with excessive energy demands for maintaining reaction conditions, feed stream recycle, product separations, toxicological concerns of any employed solvents and/or catalysts, and resource depletion due to low reaction efficiencies and by-product formation. In an effort to demonstrate the potential of a green oxidation catalyst, research into the selective partial oxidation of cyclohexane into cyclohexanol and cyclohexanone at mild reaction conditions was undertaken. The study demonstrated the use of a homogeneous green catalyst that utilizes molecular oxygen as the sole oxidant and selectively produces cyclohexanol and cyclohexanone as the major products at 125°C after 4 hours in a batch reactor.
Although improvements to the catalyst itself are extremely important for increasing the efficiency of a reaction, one must evaluate all aspects of the entire process to experience the full benefit of any process improvements. Research conducted within our laboratory has focused on developing more robust catalysts that are effective at lower temperatures, and able to utilize oxygen as the primary oxidant source. Additional elements of research investigated are the use of single solvent or solvent mixture substitutes to replace detrimental solvents and the evaluation of reaction chemistries and their potential impact on process design.