Patent ID: 7273941

Claim:
A process of preparing an olefin oxide and a co-product alcohol comprising contacting an olefin and ethylbenzene hydroperoxide in a liquid phase in the presence of a homogeneous epoxidation catalyst under process conditions sufficient to prepare the olefin oxide and the corresponding alcohol; the contacting being conducted in a multi-reactor system designed to facilitate plug flow behavior of the liquid phase by means of from 2 to less than 12 sequentially interconnected reactors, optionally, each reactor having from 3 to less than 15 baffles dividing each reactor into 4 or more reaction zones; wherein the olefin is fed to a first reactor in the multi-reactor system; the reactor system further providing for the staged addition of the ethylbenzene hydroperoxide such that a primary ethylbenzene hydroperoxide feedstream is split into a plurality of split ethylbenzene hydroperoxide feedstreams, and the split ethylbenzene hydroperoxide feedstreams are distributed among the from 2 to less than 12 sequentially interconnected reactors, and optionally, further split among the reaction zones in each reactor.