Hydrogen Peroxide Catalysts - H2O2 Production
Hydrogen peroxide is typically manufactured in a multi-step auto oxidation (AO) process with the main step being the catalytic hydrogenation of anthraquinone. The leading technology is based on slurry phase batch systems, but there are an increasing number of plants running the process in fixed bed reactors.
Johnson Matthey has commercialised several H2O2 catalysts which cover both principal technologies.
Our hydrogen peroxide catalyst portfolio
The conventionally used hydrogen peroxide catalyst for the slurry system is palladium supported on silica-alumina. This has the required activity, product distribution and physical characteristics to carry out the AO process reliably over time.
At Johnson Matthey, we have also developed an alternative to the silica-alumina based catalysts, which uses spray-dried silica-alumina support with defined Si:Al ratios.
For slurry technologies, which utilise alumina-supported catalysts, commercial materials are available in various metal loadings and particle size distributions. Fixed bed hydrogen peroxide processes also use supported Pd catalysts and Johnson Matthey currently offers this catalyst on an alumina sphere.
Johnson Matthey is also the world’s largest recycler of precious metals, enabling us to offer a complete closed loop package of metal sale, catalyst manufacturing and metal recovery.
