Agglomeration of Ti-SBA-15 with clays for liquid phase olefin epoxidation in a continuous fixed bed reactor

Titanium-containing SBA-15 material has been agglomerated with bentonite clay to form macroscopic structured catalyst particles with the purpose of being used in continuous epoxidation processes on a fixed bed reactor. The binding conditions, the mass ratio catalyst to binding agent as well as the calcination temperature of the material were studied to improve as much as possible the catalytic behavior and mechanical strength of the titanium-based catalyst. The binded material has been finally tested in the liquid epoxidation of 1-octene with ethyl benzyl hydroperoxide in a continuous up-flow fixed bed reactor. Reaction results reveal a better catalytic performance of this catalyst, both regarding to the conversion of the olefin and efficient use of the oxidant, than conventional commercially available TiO2–SiO2, specially when pellet surface hydrophobization is performed by silylation treatment.