Patent ID: 7105143

Claim:
A method for the direct catalytic conversion of hydrogen and oxygen to hydrogen peroxide employing a multi-stage reactor operated under conditions so as to convert hydrogen and oxygen to hydrogen peroxide in the presence of a catalyst, the method comprising: introducing a feedstream comprising oxygen, hydrogen and a liquid media into an inlet of a first stage of the multi-stage reactor in order to establish an initial molar ratio of oxygen to hydrogen of at least about 1.5 at the first stage inlet; passing an effluent from the first stage of the multi-stage reactor into one or more subsequent stages downstream from the first stage, the effluent having a molar ratio of oxygen to hydrogen that is less than the initial molar ratio; introducing a supplemental feed comprising mostly or entirely hydrogen into the effluent in an amount so as to reestablish a molar ratio of oxygen to hydrogen in each subsequent stage that is at least initially closer to the molar ratio established at the first stage inlet than that of the effluent from a preceding stage; and recovering hydrogen peroxide and unconverted oxygen and hydrogen, the unconverted oxygen and hydrogen having a molar ratio of oxygen to hydrogen that is less than the molar ratio established at the first stage inlet of the multi-stage reactor, the molar ratio of oxygen to hydrogen within each stage of the multi-stage reactor exceeding the overall molar feed ratio of oxygen to hydrogen utilized throughout the method.