75
Discovery
and Optimization of New Heterogeneous Catalysts for the Direct Production of
Propylene Oxide (PO) from Propylene and Oxygen Using Combinatorial Methods--Laboratory
Catalysts Systems, LLC, 914 Westwood Boulevard, Suite 334, Los Angeles, CA
90024-2905; 310-216-7079, www.lcs-us.com
Dr.
Isik Onal, Principal Investigator, onal@lcs-us.com
Mr.
Craig Leidholm, Business Official, leidholm@lcs-us.com
DOE
Grant No. DE-FG02-03ER83694
Amount:
$99,999
Propylene
oxide (
PO
) is one of the most important intermediates in
the petrochemical industry. Over ten billion pounds of
PO
are produced annually, representing $6
billion/year. At present, two major energy-intensive industrial processes are
used for the synthesis of
PO
– the chlorohydrin and peroxide processes. The
development of new and highly efficient catalysts for the direct production of
PO
from readily available feedstocks, such as
propylene and oxygen (air), could greatly reduce the energy requirements.
This project will exploit combinatorial heterogeneous catalysis tools to
develop highly active, selective, and durable heterogeneous catalysts for the
direct conversion of propylene into propylene oxide (
PO
) using molecular oxygen (air). Phase
I will prepare and screen a large diversity of metals, their combinations, and
metal oxide supports to identify new catalysts for direct
PO
production. In
particular, solid-state libraries of single and binary combinations of elements
from the periodic table will be systematically generated on a variety of metal
oxide substrates. A high-throughput
screening of these catalytic libraries will be conducted under simulated
production conditions. Phase II will
involve the larger-volume production of catalysts and their testing.
Commercial
Applications and Other Benefits as
described by awardee: A durable
PO
catalyst technology should become an important
contributor to the multibillion dollar market of the petrochemicals industry.