Direct hydrogen peroxide production using staged hydrogen addition

1. A direct catalytic process for the production of hydrogen peroxide from hydrogen and oxygen feedstreams comprising:

maintaining a reactor containing catalyst particles in serially connected catalytic conversion zones of successively decreasing volume under conditions sufficient to convert hydrogen and oxygen to hydrogen peroxide, said zones comprising a first zone receivably connected to receive all of said oxygen feedstream and a portion of the hydrogen feedstream and intermediate or terminal zone(s) receivably connected to receive the remaining portion of the hydrogen feedstream, wherein the ratio of oxygen to hydrogen in the combination of all feedstreams to the reactor is less than the molar ratio of oxygen to hydrogen taken at the inlet into each of the conversion zones;

passing all of the oxygen feedstream and a major portion of the hydrogen feedstream into the first conversion zone of the reactor at an inlet molar ratio of oxygen to hydrogen between 1.5 and 10;

passing sequentially decreasing portions of the remaining portion of the hydrogen feedstream to each of the receivably connected serial intermediate or terminal conversion zones at a zone inlet molar ratio of oxygen to hydrogen about the same as that employed in the first zone;

recovering hydrogen peroxide and unconverted hydrogen and oxygen from the terminal zone effluent.

2. The process of claim 1 wherein the unconverted hydrogen and oxygen recovered from the terminal zone effluent is recompressed and recycled to the first zone inlet of the reactor.

3. The process of claim 1 wherein said catalytic reactor is a fixed bed reactor containing conversion zones comprising serially connected fixed catalyst beds.

4. The process of claim 1 wherein said catalytic reactor is an ebullated bed reactor containing conversion zones comprising serially connected ebullated catalyst beds.

5. The process of claim 1 wherein said catalytic reactor is a slurry bed reactor containing conversion zones comprising serially connected slurry catalyst beds.

6. The process of claim 1 wherein said catalytic process is carried out in a liquid reaction media comprising aqueous or organic solvents and mixtures thereof.

7. The process of claim 6 wherein the reaction media comprises a mixture of water and alcohol.

8. The process of claim 1 wherein the first conversion zone inlet molar ratio of oxygen to hydrogen is about 2 and the molar ratio of oxygen to hydrogen in the combination of all oxygen and hydrogen feedstreams is about 1.17.

9. The process of claim 1 wherein the first conversion zone inlet molar ratio of oxygen to hydrogen is about 3 and the molar ratio of oxygen to hydrogen in the combination of all oxygen and hydrogen feedstreams is about 1.4.

10. The process of claim 1 wherein the first conversion zone inlet molar ratio of oxygen to hydrogen is about 4 and the molar ratio of oxygen to hydrogen in the combination of all oxygen and hydrogen feedstreams is about 1.67.

11. The process of claim 1 wherein the hydrogen peroxide selectivity of the process is at least 90% and the overall yield based on hydrogen is at least 81%.

12. The process of claim 1 wherein the catalyst comprises supported noble metal catalyst.

13. The process of claim 12 wherein said supported noble metal is selected from the group consisting of supported palladium, platinum and mixtures thereof.

14. The process of claim 13 wherein said noble metal contains an orderly liner arrangement of crystal faces having 110 and/or 220 exposition.

15. The process of claim 1 wherein the conditions to convert hydrogen and oxygen to hydrogen peroxide comprise temperature between 0° C. and 100° C. and a pressure between 1 bar and 100 bar.

16. A direct catalytic process for the conversion of hydrogen and oxygen to hydrogen peroxide in a multi-stage catalytic reactor with minimum recycle requirement, said process comprising:

introducing a feedstream comprising oxygen, hydrogen and liquid media into the reactor first stage inlet in contact with catalyst at a molar ratio of oxygen to hydrogen between 1.5 and 10, wherein said reactor stages are maintained under conditions sufficient to convert hydrogen and oxygen to hydrogen peroxide;

introducing a supplemental feed consisting essentially of hydrogen into the downstream feedstream of all sequential catalyst-containing stages in an amount sufficient to reestablish the molar ratio of oxygen to hydrogen at the inlet of each sequential stage to that ratio corresponding to the molar ratio established at the first stage inlet;

separating the reactor effluent to recover hydrogen peroxide and a recycle stream of unconverted oxygen and hydrogen having a molar ratio of oxygen to hydrogen that is substantially less than the oxygen to hydrogen molar ratio introduced into each sequential stage.

17. The process of claim 16 wherein the liquid media comprises aqueous or organic solvents and mixtures thereof.

18. The process of claim 16 wherein the catalyst comprises supported noble metal catalyst.

19. The process of claim 16 wherein the reactor stage conditions for converting hydrogen and oxygen to hydrogen peroxide comprise temperature between 0° C. and 100° C. and a pressure between 1 bar and 100 bar.

20. The process of claim 16 wherein the first stage inlet molar ratio of oxygen to hydrogen is about 2 to 4.

21. A direct catalytic process for the conversion of hydrogen and oxygen to hydrogen peroxide in a multi-stage catalytic reactor, said process comprising:

introducing a feedstrcam comprising oxygen, hydrogen and a liquid media into a first catalyst-containing stage of the multi-stage catalytic reactor at an initial molar ratio of oxygen to hydrogen between 1.5 and 10;

maintaining the first catalyst-containing stage under conditions sufficient to convert hydrogen and oxygen to hydrogen peroxide as the feedstreamn is fed therethrough;

introducing supplemental hydrogen into a downstream feedstream near an inlet of one or more sequential catalyst-containing stages to lower the molar ratio of oxygen to hydrogen in the downstream feedstream to a ratio that is closer to the initial molar ratio, wherein essentially no supplemental oxygen is introduced into the one or more sequential catalyst-containing stages such that the overall molar ratio of oxygen to hydrogen consumed in the process is less than the initial molar ratio;

maintaining the one or more sequential catalyst-containing stages under conditions sufficient to convert hydrogen and oxygen to hydrogen peroxide as the feedstream is fed therethrough; and

recovering hydrogen peroxide from a reactor effluent.

22. The process of claim 21 , wherein the overall ratio of oxygen to hydrogen consumed throughout the process is from 1 to 1.67.

23. A method for direct catalytic conversion of hydrogen and oxygen to hydrogen peroxide, comprising:

introducing a feedstream comprising oxygen, hydrogen, and a liquid media into a first catalytic conversion zone of a multi-stage catalylic reactor,

the reactor being comprised of a plurality of serially connected catalytic conversion zones and a catalyst for converting hydrogen and oxygen to hydrogen peroxide,

the feedstream having an initial molar ratio of oxygen to hydrogen between 1.5 and 10;

converting hydrogen and oxygen to hydrogen peroxide in each of the catalytic conversion zones,

a portion of the oxygen in the initial feedstream being consumed in each of the catalytic conversion zones such that each successive catalytic conversion zone includes less oxygen than a preceding catalytic conversion zone,

introducing supplemental hydrogen into one or more catalyst conversion zones downstream from the first catalytic conversion zone in order to lower the molar ratio of oxygen to hydrogen in the one or more downstream catalyst conversion zones to a ratio that is closer to the initial molar ratio in the first catalytic conversion zone.

24. The method of claim 23 , wherein the overall ratio of oxygen to hydrogen consumed throughout the process is from 1 to 1.67.