| Abstract: | Propylene oxide (PO) is one of the most important intermediates for the chemical industry. It is used for the manufacture of materials such as insulating foams, solvents, deicing fluids among others and has, thus, become essential for our modern life. The first industrial production route for PO and today still the most important one is the so called chlorhydrine process. With the renouncement of chlorine, the SM‐PO and MTBE‐PO processes provide more environmentally friendly routes for the production of PO. However, Styrene and MTBE are obtained as secondary coproducts. The economic feasibility of these processes is determined not only by PO. It is also influenced by the demand of the coproducts. The CU‐PO process has been developed as a coproduct‐free variant of the SM‐PO process. The development of the highly selective catalyst titansilicalit‐1 (TS‐1) together with the vast expansion of the availability of hydrogen peroxide paved the way for the industrial realization of the coproduct‐free HPPO technology at various sites worldwide. Excellent yields and selectivities and water as an environmentally friendly byproduct characterize this new process for the production of PO. The application of homogeneous catalysts or the direct synthesis using air/oxygen and propylene are only of academic importance so far. |
