Teng Zhou

Selective oxidation of cyclohexanol to cyclohexanone in the ionic liquid 1-octyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride

Ionic liquid (IL) 1-octyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride was found to effectively intensify cyclohexanol oxidation and resulted in 100% conversion of cyclohexanol with 100% selectivity to cyclohexanone using hydrogen peroxide as an oxidant and WO(3) as a catalyst. The effect of the IL as a solvent is discussed with the support of COSMO-RS theory.

Rigorous design of reaction-separation processes using disjunctive programming models

Abstract A systematic and efficient method for the rigorous design of complex chemical processes is significant in the chemical industry. In this paper, a superstructure-based optimization approach for the rigorous and simultaneous design of reaction and separation processes using generalized disjunctive programming (GDP) models is presented. In the reactor network, disjunctions for conditional reactors are introduced where the balance and reaction kinetic equations are applied only if the reactor is selected. Based on the proposed reactor disjunctions, two different reactor superstructures are developed and employed. In addition, the GDP representation of distillation columns is used to model the separation network. The reliability and efficiency of the proposed optimization method are demonstrated on two case studies, i.e., one cyclohexane oxidation process and one benzene chlorination process. The flowsheet structure and process-unit operating conditions are simultaneously optimized to minimize the total annual cost of the processes.