Enhanced stability of Pd/SPS catalyst over the one-pot liquid-phase synthesis of methyl isobutyl ketone by adding GO

Process Development for Methyl Isobutyl Ketone Production Using the Low-Pressure One-Step Gas-Phase Selective Hydrogenation of Acetone

Methyl isobutyl ketone (MIBK) is a highly valuable product in the chemical industry. It is widely used as an extracting agent for heavy metals, antibiotics, and lubricating oils. Generally, MIBK can be produced by three-step and one-step liquid-phase methods. These methods are expensive and energy-demanding due to the high pressure and low conversion of acetone. A novel nano-Pd/nano-ZnCr2O4 catalyst was developed to produce MIBK with high conversion and selectivity of 77.3% and 72.1%, respectively, at 350 °C and ambient pressure, eliminating the need for high pressure in conventional MIBK processes. This study is the first that proposes a newly developed process of methyl isobutyl ketone (MIBK) production using the low-pressure one-step gas-phase selective hydrogenation of acetone. In this work, a novel process flow diagram has been developed for the production of MIBK using the developed nano-catalyst. The process was heat integrated, resulting in a 26% and a 19.5% reduction in the heating and cooling utilities, respectively, leading to a 12.6% reduction in the total energy demand. An economic analysis was performed to determine the economic feasibility of the developed process, which shows that the process is highly profitable, in which it reduced both the capital and operating costs of MIBK synthesis and showed a return on investment (ROI) of 29.6% with a payback period of 2.2 years. It was found that the ROI could be increased by 18% when the reactor temperature is increased to 350 °C. In addition, the economic sensitivity analysis showed that the process is highly sensitive to product prices and least sensitive to utility prices, which is due to the versatility of the process that requires only a low amount of energy.

An active and stable multifunctional catalyst with defective UiO-66 as a support for Pd over the continuous catalytic conversion of acetone and hydrogen

The one-pot synthesis of methyl isobutyl ketone (MIBK) and methyl isobutyl methanol (MIBC) from acetone and hydrogen is a typical cascade reaction comprised of aldol condensation-dehydration-hydrogenation. Pd loss and aggregation during long term operation are typical problems in industrial application. In this paper, an active and stable catalyst was achieved with defective UiO-66 as a support for Pd, which was synthesized with the ratio 15 : 1 of ZrOCl2·8H2O to ZrCl4 as Zr-precursors. The resultant Pd catalyst remained active for at least 1000 h with a MIBK + MIBC selectivity of 84.87-93.09% and acetone conversion of 45.26-53.22% in a continuous trickle-bed reactor. Besides the increased Brønsted acid amount generated by the defect sites was favorable for the activity, the cavity confinement in the UiO-66 (R = 15 : 1) structure also efficiently prevented Pd loss and aggregation during the long term run. The contrast of the characterization of the fresh and used Pd/UiO-66 (R = 15 : 1) indicated that the deactivation of the catalyst was attributed to carbonaceous accumulation on the catalyst surface, which could be easily regenerated by calcination. This work supplied a new alternative for the design and utilization of industrial catalysts for MIBK and MIBC synthesis.