Microchannel reactor system for catalytic hydrogenation of o-nitroanisole to o-anisidine

Adeniyi Lawal, Donald Kientzler, Luke Achenie, Raghunath Halder, Ronald S. Besser, Sunitha Tadepalli, Woo Lee

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

In this work, a three phase solid catalyzed hydrogenation reaction of o-nitroanisole to produce o-anisidine in methanol was studied in a microreactor as a model pharmaceutical reaction. In the pharmaceutical industry, hydrogenation reactions constitute about 15-20% of the reactions and are generally carried out in batch reactors. Ineffective mass transfer and non-uniform temperature distribution in the batch reactor can have deleterious effects on reactor performance including the formation of undesired side products. These side products lead to product impurity necessitating costly separation processes. By using a microreactor for conducting such highly exothermic reactions, significantly improved heat and mass transfer can be achieved because of the high surface-to-volume ratio in these reactors. The product selectivity can also increase due to short reaction time because of the attainment of close to intrinsic kinetics in the microreactor, especially in reactions where products can further react catalytically to form side products. The main objective of this study is to compare the performance of the microreactor with a batch reactor using this model reaction. Experiments were conducted in a packed bed micro-reactor using Pd catalyst on different supports to determine the best support for the hydrogenation reaction. It was found that Pd supported on zeolite resulted in higher yield and selectivity compared to Pd on other supports. The effects of different processing conditions, e.g., reactor temperature, pressure, nitroanisole concentration in the feed on the conversion, yield and selectivity have been studied using the Pd supported on zeolite catalyst. Similar experiments were conducted in the batch reactor using the same catalyst for the comparison study.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication2005 AIChE Spring National Meeting, Conference Proceedings
Pages75
Number of pages1
StatePublished - 2005
Event2005 AIChE Spring National Meeting - Atlanta, GA, United States
Duration: 10 Apr 200514 Apr 2005

Publication series

Name2005 AIChE Spring National Meeting, Conference Proceedings

Conference

Conference2005 AIChE Spring National Meeting
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityAtlanta, GA
Period10/04/0514/04/05

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