Gas-Phase Synthesis of Hydrocyanic Acid through Oxidation of N2

该项目旨在重新审视工业规模氢氰酸的合成，以解决两个主要挑战：1.可持续性/二氧化碳足迹：目前的合成途径始于通过Haber-Bosch过程从空气中活化氮气，并将其转化为氢氰酸的一系列化学转化步骤。合成氨需要大量的氢气，而氢气是化学工业中碳足迹最大的试剂。然而，这种氢在最终产品中并不是必需的，但在随后的步骤中会被转化为水。因此，我们建议为氢氰酸的合成创造一种新的、更可持续的工艺选择，该工艺可能涉及通过氧化而不是氢气从空气中激活氮气。由于这将是一个多相催化的气相过程，连续处理是唯一合理的操作模式-将需要一个气相流动化学过程来开展这一主题的研究和开发。分布式制造：HCN是化学工业中大规模处理的最危险和最有毒的成分之一。因此，在大型的“Verbund”工厂，氢氰酸在一家工厂生产，然后通过管道直接输送到下一家工厂，在那里消费。然而，通过道路或河流到其他地点的运输是不受欢迎的，几乎是不可能的。因此，在没有指定的世界规模氢氰酸工厂的情况下，它根本无法在较小的地点使用，从而限制了较小地点的合成选择范围和公司内部规划生产的灵活性。如果能想出一种可以在较小的地点运行的流动化学过程，只产生所需的(少量)量，那将是很有吸引力的。从安全角度(就地发电)和建立工厂的具体投资(以每吨和每年欧元计)来看，连续(流动化学)工艺将是有利的。在构思阶段，该项目将基于可持续性和技术经济方面对各种加工替代品进行全面评估。这将需要化学工程技能才能以安全的方式操作气相工艺。我们预计很大一部分实验工作将处理多相催化，因为这决定了该过程的产率和选择性。

This project aims at revisiting the synthesis of hydrocyanic acid on an industrial scale to address two main challenges: 1. Sustainability/CO2-footprint: The current synthetic pathway starts with activating nitrogen from air via the Haber-Bosch-process and converting it in a series of chemical conversion steps to hydrocyanic acid. In synthesizing ammonia, much H2 is required, which is the reagent that accounts for the greatest carbon-footprint in chemical industry. However, this hydrogen is not required in the final product, but it is converted to water in the subsequent steps. We therefore propose to create a novel, more sustainable process option for the synthesis of hydrocyanic acid that likely involves activation of nitrogen from the air through oxidation rather than with hydrogen. As this will be a heterogeneously catalyzed gas-phase process, continuous processing is the only reasonable mode of operation - and a gas-phase flow-chemistry process will be required to carry out R&D on this topic.2. Distributed manufacturing: HCN is one of the most hazardous and toxic compenents that is handled in the chemical industry at large scale. Therefore, in big "Verbund" sites hydrocyanic acid is produced in one plant and directly transported to the next plant via pipelines, where it is consumed. However, transportation on roads or rivers to other sites is undesired and almost impossible. Therefore, it is simply not available at smaller sites without a designated world-scale hydrocyanic acid plant, limiting the range of synthetic options at the smaller site and the flexibility of planning production within a company. It would be attractive to come up with a flow chemical process that can be operated at smaller sites produces just the required (small) amount. A continuous (flow chemistry) process would be of advantage from a safety perspective (in-situ generation) and because of the specific investment in setting up the plant (in Euros per ton and year). In its conception phase, this project will be holistically assess various processing alternatives based on sustainability and techno-economical aspects. It will require chemical engineering skills to operate gas-phase processes in a safe way. We expect a large fraction of the experimental work to deal with heterogeneous catalysis as this determines yield and selectivity of the process.