Published February 2000
The subject patents disclose improvements to existing fluidized-bed reactor technology for producing pyridine and beta-picoline by reacting acetaldehyde, formaldehyde, and ammonia over a catalyst made of ZSM-5 in a silica-alumina-clay matrix. US 5969143 (to Mobil Oil, October 19, 1999) pertains to increasing product yield by separating the polyalkylpyri-dines and recycling them back to the reactor and incorporating hydrogen in the reactor feed; US 5994550 (to Mobil Oil, November 30, 1999) focuses on the problem of catalyst attrition in the fluidized-bed reactor system. The inventors disclose that attrition resistance of the conventionally supported ZSM-5 catalyst is significantly increased without loss of activity simply by adding a phosphorous compound to the catalyst.
Examples in the patent documentation are used as the basis for creating and simulating a process flow scheme for producing approximately 11.5 million lb/yr (5,200 t/yr) of pyridine and 6.4 million lb/yr (2,900 t/yr) of beta-picoline.
