【Ten Years of Rapid Development in Chemical Equipment】2258–2025: Innovations in next-generation anthraquinone carrier technologies enable doubling of production capacity in hydrogen peroxide manufacturing

Thread Content

Give praise and encouragement to the achievements made in China’s chemical engineering technology and equipment; your participation in discussions is the greatest encouragement. **********************【Ten Years of Great Development in Chemical Engineering Equipment】Continuous updates and summaries are available; feel free to participate in the discussions: https://bbs.hcbbs.com/thread-3576046-1-1.html ***************** Innovations in the next generation of anthraquinone-based carriers for hydrogen peroxide production could double the capacity of such manufacturing facilities. Hydrogen peroxide is an important basic chemical, but its production involves various hazardous chemicals and processes, posing safety risks such as the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide and gas-phase explosions. Recently, the project \"Design of a New Generation of Anthraquinone Carriers to Facilitate the Green, Safe, and Large-Scale Production of Hydrogen Peroxide\", developed by the Refining Processes and Catalysts **Engineering Research Center of Sinopec Petroleum & Chemical Research Institute Co., Ltd., won the second prize in the 4th Central Enterprises Yixing Innovation and Creativity Competition. By designing new anthraquinone carriers, this technology has addressed the long-standing problem of poor stability of anthraquinone products in traditional production processes, as well as the reliance on alkalis to eliminate degradation products. It holds the potential to free hydrogen peroxide production from the \"bondage\" of alkalis, thereby eliminating the possibility of related accidents at their source. 　　Three major pain points: Hidden risks in the traditional anthraquinone method. The key to producing hydrogen peroxide lies in the anthraquinone carrier. Shi Peng, the lead researcher of the project and a young scientist from the 26th Research Laboratory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, explained: “Currently, the anthraquinone process is widely used in hydrogen peroxide production. The anthraquinone carrier acts like the ‘hydrogen-carrying red blood cells’ in this process, with hydrogen peroxide being produced through two steps: hydrogenation and oxidation of anthraquinone.” ” 　　Existing carriers have \"inherent deficiencies\". Shi Peng said, “During the production process, due to the poor stability of the existing ethyl anthraquinone or pentyl anthraquinone products, degradation products are inevitably formed.” The production process of hydrogen peroxide is similar to the blood circulation in the human body, with the degradation products acting like blood clots that gradually accumulate as the number of cycles increases. If these degradation products are not dealt with promptly, they will continue to degrade, leading to a decrease in production efficiency and even affecting product quality. 　　Due to the defects in the carriers, the current main processes for hydrogen peroxide production both domestically and internationally suffer from issues such as safety concerns, poor environmental performance, and low efficiency. 　　The continuously “necrotizing” carrier must be regenerated through alkaline “dialysis”. Zheng Bo, the second researcher on the project and deputy director of the 26th Research Laboratory at the Shihezi Institute of Geology, pointed out: “To remove the ‘thrombi’ in the circulation, alkaline regeneration treatment is required, which puts the entire process environment in a state of alternating acidity and alkalinity. In such conditions, hydrogen peroxide can easily decompose and explode when it comes into contact with an alkaline environment.” ” 　　In addition to safety issues, traditional ethylanthraquinone and pentylanthraquinone carriers also suffer from problems such as severe environmental pollution and low efficiency. Zheng Bo said, “Processing degradation products generates large amounts of waste alkaline liquid and solid waste; the amount of solid waste exceeds 100,000 tons per year, causing severe environmental pollution.” At the same time, traditional ethyl anthraquinone and pentyl anthraquinone carriers are produced using the phthalic anhydride method, which results in high pollution during the production process. Furthermore, due to factors such as the low solubility and poor stability of anthraquinones, production efficiency is insufficient; as a result, the scale of a single hydrogen peroxide production facility cannot reach 200,000 tons per year or more. Additionally, the high investment costs make it impossible to meet the demands of large-scale production. ” 　　A \"tentacle\" that eliminates the need for alkalis at the source. To address the aforementioned issues, Professor Zong Baoning, the chief expert at Sinopec and the lead researcher behind Sinopec’s fluidized-bed anthraquinone process for hydrogen peroxide production, led a research team to design and develop a new generation of anthraquinone carriers. Starting with the molecular structure design of anthraquinone, the team used a single \"tentacle\" to address the industry’s pain points related to safety concerns, poor environmental performance, and low efficiency. 　　“To improve the performance of anthraquinone carriers, addressing the issues of molecular-catalyst contact and the efficiency of hydrogenation reactions, we employed clever molecular design to reduce unnecessary hydrogenation reactions, thereby enhancing the selectivity and efficiency of hydrogenation. The stability of the new generation of anthraquinone carriers has also been significantly improved. ”Shi Peng recalled. 　　He pointed out that this carrier can maintain good performance under conditions of deep hydrogenation, with no significant degradation observed in pilot tests; it holds promise for eliminating the alkali regeneration step in the entire production process, thereby avoiding safety issues and environmental pollution caused by degradation products. 　　In terms of efficiency, thanks to its special structure, this carrier exhibits a significantly higher solubility compared to traditional ethyl and pentyl anthraquinones, resulting in an increased number of active carriers per unit volume. Through optimized formulation design, the solubility of anthraquinone molecules has been increased several times over, which greatly enhances the production efficiency of hydrogen peroxide and meets the demands of large-scale production. Shi Peng said, “Our independently developed new generation of hydrogen peroxide carriers has the potential to double the production capacity of hydrogen peroxide while ensuring green, efficient, and safe operations.” ”