Claims
- 1. A process for oxidizing a feed hydrocarbon to maleic anhydride which comprises contacting the hydrocarbon under conditions sufficient to convert the hydrocarbon feed to maleic anhydride with a catalyst having an intrinsic surface area of at least 10 m.sup.2 /g prepared by a process comprising the steps of:
- (a) heating vanadium pentoxide with a substantially anhydrous primary or secondary alcohol liquid reducing agent to reduce the vanadium of the vanadium pentoxide to a valence between 4.0 and 4.6 and thereby obtain a vanadium-containing feed,
- (b) contacting on orthophosphoric acid with the vanadium-containing feed to form a heterogeneous reaction mixture of suspended vanadium (IV) phosphate,
- (c) removing liquid from the heterogeneous mixture to obtain the vanadium (IV) phosphate compound, and
- (d) calcining the vanadium (IV) phosphate compound to obtain said catalyst.
- 2. A process according to claim 1 wherein the hydrocarbon feed is normal butane.
- 3. A process according to claim 1 wherein the hydrocarbon feed is normal butane and the primary or secondary alcohol liquid reducing agent used to prepare the catalyst is a mixture of isobutanol and benzyl alcohol.
Parent Case Info
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This is a division of application Ser. No. 729,920, filed Oct. 6, 1976 now U.S. Pat. No. 4,132,670 Jan. 2, 1979, which in turn is a continuation of application Ser. No. 521,604, filed Nov. 6, 1974, now abandoned, which in turn is a continuation of application Ser. No. 290,049, filed Sept. 18, 1972, now abandoned.
US Referenced Citations (1)
Number |
Name |
Date |
Kind |
4043943 |
Schneider |
Aug 1977 |
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Divisions (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
729920 |
Oct 1976 |
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Continuations (2)
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Number |
Date |
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Parent |
521604 |
Nov 1974 |
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Parent |
290049 |
Sep 1972 |
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