Ethylene Epoxidation over Alumina- and Silica-Supported Silver Catalysts in Low-Temperature AC Dielectric Barrier Discharge

摘要

In this work, ethylene epoxidation reaction for ethylene oxide production over silver catalysts loaded on two different supports (silica and alumina particles) in a low-temperature AC dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) reactor was investigated. The DBD plasma system was operated under the following base conditions: an O₂/C₂H₄ feed molar ratio of 1/4, a total feed flow rate of 50 cm3/min, an electrode gap distance of 0.7 cm, an input frequency of 500 Hz, and an applied voltage of 19 kV. From the results, the presence of silver catalysts improved the ethylene oxide production performance. The silica support interestingly provided a higher ethylene oxide selectivity than the alumina support. The optimum Ag loading on the silica support was found to be 20 wt%, exhibiting the highest ethylene oxide selectivity of 30.6%.