Vapour phase beckmann rearrangement of cyclohexanone oxime over SAPO-11 molecular sieve Original Research Article

SAPO-11 exhibited a high caprolactam yield for the vapour phase Beckmann rearrangement of cyclohexanone oxime to caprolactam. At 663 K, the oxime conversion is 99,9% with a caprolactam selectivity around 85.7%. The effect of silicon content of the SAPO-11 on the catalytic efficiency is compared with aluminosilicate having MFI structure. SAPO-11 is the best catalyst for the reaction among the investigated catalysts, ALPO4-11 on silica carrier, silynated zeolite and silynated SAPO-11. Acid sites with medium strength (Si/Al > 10 000) are very active in the rearrangement reaction.