Kinetics of S-1 catalyzed vapor phase Beckmann rearrangement of cyclohexanone oxime to caprolactam

Caprolactam,the intermediate for the production of Nylon-6,is mainly produced through sulfuric acid catalyzed liquid phase Beckmann rearrangement of cyclohexanone oxime.This process has several disadvantages,such as the corrosion of reactors and by-production of a large amount of ammonium sulfate.These shortcomings can be prevented by vapor phase Beckmann rearrangement.In this work,the kinetics of vapor phase Beckmann rearrangement of cyclohexanone oxime to caprolactam was studied by both experiments and modeling.The results showed that the changes of catalyst activity with online reaction time could be correlated with the catalyst deactivation model developed by Wojciechowski,from which the kinetic equation and the corresponding parameters of the reaction were obtained.The results could be used to calculate deactivation rates at any online reaction time or catalyst life at the permissible lower conversion.