Peroxide process
20 Oct 2004
German speciality chemicals producer Degussa has teamed up with Utah-based catalysts specialist Headwaters in a 50:50 joint venture to develop and commercialise a direct synthetic route to hydrogen peroxide.
The companies claim that a full-scale plant could be built as early as 2008.
Currently, peroxide is generally produced in the multiple-stage anthraquinone process, which makes aqueous H2O2, generally used to bleach pulp and paper.
Both Degussa and Headwaters have been working independently on a direct synthesis, starting from hydrogen and oxygen, and have now agreed to scale-up a process which uses Headwaters' heterogeneous precious metal nanocatalyst, NxCat.
The new process makes a low-concentration solution of peroxide in methanol, which could be used directly in the production of propylene oxide, an important intermediate in polyurethane production.
Shawn Abrams, head of the company's Active Oxygen business, comments that compared with the anthraquinone route, direct synthesis has enormous advantages for the PO process.
'It could also be used for other petrochemical processes, such as caprolactam, phenol and epichlorohydrin', he says.
