Industrial Use of SCFs as Reaction Media

Hydration Alcohols C2H4, C3H6, C4H8 Production 

Transfer hydrogenation Estradione tetralin Pilot plant 

Modem plants for ammonia production by the Haber-Bosch process [145] operate at 100-350 bar and 4()0-530°C, well above both Tc and Pc for the reaction mixture. Most notably, the largest plants use the highest pressures because this allows a greater throughput per unit volume of vessel. llie actual ammonia synthesis step may not be Ae only part of the plant that operates at supercritic conditions. The production of H2 in the Shell and Texaco ammo- 

In 1913, the same year as the first comnjercial ammonia process was launched, BASF began initial tests of a synthesis of methanol from pressurized H2/CO mixtures, leading to the first plant for the production of synthetic methanol (eq 1.1-10) at Leuna in Germany in 1923 [147,148]. Patart in France later claimed prior invention [149,150]. 

The high pressure of the process was required because of the poor activity of the catalyst, but this problem was alleviated by the introduction of better catalysts by ICI and Lurgi in the 1960s and 1970s [148]. The current process for the synthesis of methanol, as operated by ICI in England [148], requires a CO/CO2/H2 feed mixture and a pressure of between 50 and 100 bar, which may or may not be supercritical, depending on the composition and pressure. 

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