Partial Isobutane Oxidation to tert-Butyl Hydroperoxide in a Micro Reactor - Comparison of DTBP and Aqueous TBHP as Initiator

The oxidation of isobutane has been investigated for the first time in a micro reactor in a wide range of process conditions comparing the initiator of DTBP and TBHP as initiator on the reaction. DTBP as initiator led to nearly the double conversion, compared to the same con-centration of TBHP, but the selectivity of TBHP using TBHP as initiator was higher. Using aqueous TBHP, the conversions reached up to 6 % in case of supercritical conditions but stayed below 2 % in case of two phase flow experiments. With TBHP in decane as initiator, a conversion of about 18 % was reached, but nearly no TBHP was formed. It seems that the silicon layer of the micro reactor was not stable under such experimental conditions due to the formation of high local formic acid concentrations. In the present work, for the first time, a conversion level near to that of the industrial batch process has been reached in a micro reactor for the isobutane oxidation.