A. Shimizu, Katsutoshi Tanaka, H. Ogawa
Oct 15, 2003
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0
Influential Citations
23
Citations
Journal
Bulletin of the Chemical Society of Japan
Abstract
Adipic acid is produced industrially by the oxidation of cyclohexanone and cyclohexanol with nitric acid. Dinitrogen oxide (nitrous oxide, N2O), a non-CO2 greenhouse gas, is produced as a by-product in this process. We have investigated an industrial process for the production of adipic acid without the generation of N2O. When acetic acid was used as a solvent and Mn(OAc)2/Co(OAc)2 were used as catalysts under atmospheric pressure of pure O2 at 70 °C, the selectivity of adipic acid was 77% and the combined selectivity of carboxylic acids, which consisted of adipic acid, glutaric acid, and succinic acid, was 93% for the 100% conversion of cyclohexanone. We presume that adipic acid is generated via 6-oxohexanoic acid. Glutaric acid was probably generated via 5-oxopentanoic acid in the reaction path that branched at 6-oxohexanoic acid. When air containing less than 10 vol % of oxygen was used at 1.22 MPa in order to avoid explosion hazards, the selectivity of adipic acid was 78% for a 99.3% conversion of cyc...