Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, Vol.38, No.7, 2824-2832, 1999
Production of hydrogen peroxide in liquid CO2. I. Design, synthesis, and phase behavior of CO2-miscible anthraquinones
H2O2 production via sequential hydrogenation-oxidation of anthraquinones (AQs) represents a potentially efficient process application of liquid or supercritical CO2 (ScCO2). First, the use of CO2 as the organic solvent in the process will. eliminate the mass-transfer limitation during the hydrogenation and oxidation and also the contamination of the aqueous phase during isolation of hydrogen peroxide. Further, the hydrogen peroxide can be recovered from CO2 solution without depressurization by liquid-liquid extraction, helping to minimize the energy cost. The primary obstacle to use CO2 as a working fluid in the process is the poor solubility of conventional AQs in CO2. Therefore, we designed and generated CO2-philic AQs suitable to be used in the production of hydrogen peroxide. Both mono- and difunctionalized anthraquinones (FAQs) were synthesized by attaching CO2-philic polymers chains (-CF(CF3)CF2O-) either to mono- or diaminoanthraquinones or to (hydroxymethyl)anthraquinone. All. FAQs synthesized are highly soluble in CO2 and present liquid-liquid phase behavior with minimum miscibility pressure between 170 and 210 bar. Cloud-point pressures were shifted to lower values by using nonhydrogen bonding linkers between AQ block and CO2-philic tails or by increasing the CO2-philic content of FAQs.
Keywords:SUPERCRITICAL CARBON-DIOXIDE;CO2-SOLUBLE CHELATING-AGENTS;HIGH-PRESSURE INVESTIGATIONS;CATALYST DEACTIVATION;DEEPHYDROGENATION;PALLADIUM CATALYST;KINETIC ASPECTS;MASS-TRANSFER;180 MPA;SOLUBILITY