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GREENING OF OXIDATION CATALYSIS THROUGH IMPROVED CATALYST AND PROCESS DESIGN
Citation:
Gonzalez*, M A., T. Becker, AND R L. Smith*. GREENING OF OXIDATION CATALYSIS THROUGH IMPROVED CATALYST AND PROCESS DESIGN. Presented at 6th Annual Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference, Washington, DC, 06/24-27-2002.
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 443, Cincinnati, Ohio 45268
gonzalez.michael@epa.gov
The chemical industry relies heavily on oxidation catalysis for the synthesis of many of its high-volume chemicals. This dependence is also experienced by the pharmaceutical industry for production of its high-value lower volume products. Although oxidation catalysis has been of benefit to both these areas, the environmental effect attributed to these process chemical reactions is quite costly. These costs, both environmental and monetary, are associated with excessive energy demands for maintaining reaction conditions, feed stream recycle and product separations, toxicological concerns of any employed solvents and/or catalysts, and resource depletion due to low reaction efficiencies and by-product formation.
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.