Process for oxidation reactions

Abstract

The current embodiment describes a process of flowing an oxidant species over the reducing side of an oxygen transport membrane. O2− anions are then continuously transported from the reducing side through the oxygen transport membrane to the oxidizing side where an organic compound is converted to a partially oxidized organic compound on the oxidizing side.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application is a Non-Provisional application which claims the benefit of and priority to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 62 / 213,396 filed Sep. 2, 2015, entitled “Process for Oxidation Reactions,” which is hereby incorporated by reference.STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT[0002]None.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0003]A process for oxidation reactions.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0004]One-pot direct conversion of paraffins to oxygenates or olefins is difficult to obtain. For example, the activation of methane and reaction with oxygen to directly produce methanol in a commercial-scale continuous process is not currently feasible.[0005]For example, to obtain methanol from methane, one would typically convert methane to syngas (H2+CO) which is then converted to methanol in a separate reaction step. Others have attempted to utilize α-oxygen species to oxidize methane to methanol. However, such a process faces sig...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The patent describes two different processes for using an oxygen transport membrane to produce methanol. In the first process, an oxidant species is flowed over the reducing side of the membrane, with O2− anions being continuously transported from the reducing side to the oxidizing side where they react with methane and a catalyst layer to produce methanol. In the second process, air is flowed over the reducing side of a solid oxide cell to produce antioxidized air and O2− anions, which are then only continuously transported from the reducing side of the cell to the oxidizing side. On the oxidizing side, the O2− anions react with methane and a catalyst layer to produce methanol. These processes use the membrane to efficiently convert oxygen to methanol, which can be useful for industrial applications such as fuel production.

Problems solved by technology

One-pot direct conversion of paraffins to oxygenates or olefins is difficult to obtain.

For example, the activation of methane and reaction with oxygen to directly produce methanol in a commercial-scale continuous process is not currently feasible.

However, such a process faces significant hurdles, for example the pulsed nature of methane and the oxidant means that the process is not continuous and the low α-oxygen capacity of the catalyst material means that the single pass conversion of methane to methanol is very low.

Others have attempted to achieve this solution but have required the addition of steam to the anode feedstock thereby increasing the cost and complexity of the system.

Such a system would also require a low operating temperature (below 250° C.) which would cause CO poisoning and rapidly deactivate the anode catalyst.

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