Patents by Inventor Itaru Sawaki

Itaru Sawaki has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 6657097
    Abstract: Disclosed is a fluidized bed reactor wherein the average cross-sectional area occupied by a cooling coil, a dummy pipe and/or a cyclone leg is 10% or more of the average cross-sectional area of said reactor in a dense-phase fluidized catalyst bed region. The fluidized bed reactor in the present invention allows an improved fluidization of catalyst and thus allows an efficient reaction of a hydrocarbon with an oxygen-containing gas in the presence of a catalyst.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 7, 2000
    Date of Patent: December 2, 2003
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation
    Inventors: Itaru Sawaki, Kazuhiro Shimizu
  • Patent number: 6620948
    Abstract: Disclosed is a process for the production of maleic anhydride, which comprises: reacting a hydrocarbon with an oxygen-containing gas in the presence of a catalyst; recovering maleic anhydride from the reaction gas; recovering unreacted hydrocarbon from the remaining gas; and returning the hydrocarbon thus recovered to the reactor for re-use, wherein said reaction is effected under the conditions such that the hydrocarbon concentration X (vol %) and oxygen concentration Y (vol) in all the gases to be fed into the reactor, the hydrocarbon conversion Z (t) in the reactor and the oxygen concentration W (vol %) in all the effluent gases from the reactor satisfy the following relationships: Y≧20, X+Y≦70, 1≦Y/X≦5, and 20(Y−10)/X≦Z≦25Y/X or 2≦W≦10.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 11, 2001
    Date of Patent: September 16, 2003
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation
    Inventors: Itaru Sawaki, Hideo Suwa, Yasunori Ishimura, Yoshiaki Iizuka, Mineo Izumi
  • Patent number: 6458971
    Abstract: Disclosed is a process for the preparation of maleic anhydride which comprises subjecting an aliphatic hydrocarbon having four or more carbon atoms to gas phase oxidation reaction in the presence of a catalyst, wherein supposing that the function of reaction product gas composition is FL and the function of temperature and pressure of reaction product gas is FR, the safety index F satisfies the following relationship (1): F=FL−FR>0  (1) According to the present invention, it is possible that the loss of unreacted hydrocarbon and maleic anhydride as reaction product due to non-catalytic oxidation reaction is prevented while effecting the reaction in a stable manner, whereby the yield of maleic anhydride can be kept maximum while assuring safety.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 24, 2000
    Date of Patent: October 1, 2002
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Chemical Coporation
    Inventors: Yoshiaki Iizuka, Tatsuya Ihara, Yasuyuki Yamauchi, Mamoru Sawano, Itaru Sawaki
  • Publication number: 20020004603
    Abstract: Disclosed is a process for the production of maleic anhydride, which comprises: reacting a hydrocarbon with an oxygen-containing gas in the presence of a catalyst; recovering maleic anhydride from the reaction gas; recovering unreacted hydrocarbon from the remaining gas; and returning the hydrocarbon thus recovered to the reactor for re-use, wherein said reaction is effected under the conditions such that the hydrocarbon concentration X (vol %) and oxygen concentration Y (vol) in all the gases to be fed into the reactor, the hydrocarbon conversion Z (t) in the reactor and the oxygen concentration W (vol %) in all the effluent gases from the reactor satisfy the following relationships:
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 11, 2001
    Publication date: January 10, 2002
    Applicant: Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation
    Inventors: Itaru Sawaki, Hideo Suwa, Yasunori Ishimura, Yoshiaki Iizuka, Mineo Izumi
  • Patent number: 6310219
    Abstract: Disclosed is a process for the production of maleic anhydride, which comprises: reacting a hydrocarbon with an oxygen-containing gas in the presence of a catalyst; recovering maleic anhydride from the reaction gas; recovering unreacted hydrocarbon from the remaining gas; and returning the hydrocarbon thus recovered to the reactor for re-use, wherein said reaction is effected under the conditions such that the hydrocarbon concentration X (vol %) and oxygen concentration Y (vol %) in all the gases to be fed into the reactor, the hydrocarbon conversion Z (%) in the reactor and the oxygen concentration W (vol %) in all the effluent gases from the reactor satisfy the following relationships: Y≧20, X+Y≦70, 1≦Y/X≦5, and 20(Y−10)/X≦Z≦25Y/X or 2≦W≦10.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 26, 1999
    Date of Patent: October 30, 2001
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation
    Inventors: Itaru Sawaki, Hideo Suwa, Yasunori Ishimura, Yoshiaki Iizuka, Mineo Izumi
  • Patent number: 6294685
    Abstract: A method for a gas phase catalytic oxidation reaction of a hydrocarbon, which comprises: subjecting an alkane having a carbon number ranging from 3 to 8 and/or an alkene having a carbon number ranging from 2 to 8 to a gas phase catalytic oxidation reaction to produce a vapor phase oxidation product in the presence of a mixed metal oxide catalyst, wherein the reacion is conducted in the presence of particles substantially inert to the reaction in an amount within a range of the same amount as the amount of catalyst to 99 wt. % in all particles.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 3, 2000
    Date of Patent: September 25, 2001
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation
    Inventors: Takashi Ushikubo, Kazunori Oshima, Itaru Sawaki, Ken Shiraga, Satoshi Kobayakawa, Hideaki Takumi
  • Patent number: 6093835
    Abstract: A process for producing maleic anhydride is described, which comprises (i) reacting a hydrocarbon with oxygen in a vapor phase in the presence of a catalyst to yield a reaction mixture gas containing maleic anhydride, (ii) bringing the reaction mixture gas into contact with an organic solvent to collect the maleic anhydride in the organic solvent, (iii) separating at least part of the maleic anhydride from the organic solvent, (iv) washing with an aqueous alkali solution at least part of the organic solvent from which maleic anhydride has been separated, and (v) reusing the resultant washed organic solvent and the residual organic solvent for contact with the reaction mixture gas.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 21, 1998
    Date of Patent: July 25, 2000
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation
    Inventors: Itaru Sawaki, Hideo Suwa, Yasunori Ishimura, Tatsuya Ihara
  • Patent number: 5472925
    Abstract: A catalyst for the production of a nitrile from an alkane, which satisfies the following conditions 1 and 2:1 the catalyst is represented by the empirical formula:Mo.sub.a V.sub.b Te.sub.c X.sub.x O.sub.n (1)wherein X is at least one element selected from the group consisting of Nb, Ta, W, Ti, Al, Zr, Cr, Mn, Fe, Ru, Co, Rh, Ni, Pd, Pt, Sb, Bi, B and Ce,when a=1,b=0.01 to 1.0,c=0.01 to 1.0,x=0.01 to 1.0,and n is a number such that the total valency of the metal elements is satisfied; and2 the catalyst has X-ray diffraction peaks at the following angles of 2.theta. in its X-ray diffraction pattern:Diffractionangles of 2.theta. (.degree.)22.1.+-.0.328.2.+-.0.336.2.+-.0.345.2.+-.0.350.0.+-.0.3.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 7, 1994
    Date of Patent: December 5, 1995
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation
    Inventors: Takashi Ushikubo, Kazunori Oshima, Atsushi Kayo, Tiaki Umezawa, Ken-ichi Kiyono, Itaru Sawaki, Hiroya Nakamura
  • Patent number: 5422328
    Abstract: A process for preparing a catalyst useful for producing a nitrile by a gas phase catalytic oxidation reaction of an alkane with ammonia, which comprises drying a solution or slurry containing molybdenum, vanadium and tellurium by a spray drying method or a freeze-drying method and heat-treating the resulting dried product.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 27, 1993
    Date of Patent: June 6, 1995
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Kasei Corporation
    Inventors: Takashi Ushikubo, Itaru Sawaki, Kazunori Oshima, Kei Inumaru, Satoshi Kobayakawa, Ken-ichi Kiyono
  • Patent number: 5281745
    Abstract: A process for producing a nitrile, which comprises subjecting an alkane and ammonia in the gaseous state to catalytic oxidation in the presence of a catalyst which satisfies the following conditions of (1) and (2):(1) the catalyst is represented by the empirical formula:Mo.sub.a V.sub.b Te.sub.c X.sub.x O.sub.n (1)wherein X is at least one element selected from the group consisting of Nb, Ta, W, Ti, Al, Zr, Cr, Mn, Fe, Ru, Co, Rh, Ni, Pd, Pt, Sb, Bi, B and Ce,______________________________________ when a = 1, b = 0.01 to 1.0, c = 0.01 to 1.0, x = 0.01 to 1.0, ______________________________________and n is a number such that the total valency of the metal elements is satisfied; and(2) the catalyst has X-ray diffraction peaks at the following angles of 2.theta. in its X-ray diffraction pattern: ______________________________________ Diffraction angles of 2.theta. (.degree.) ______________________________________ 22.1 .+-. 0.3 28.2 .+-. 0.3 36.2 .+-. 0.3 45.2 .+-. 0.3 50.0 .+-. 0.3.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 7, 1992
    Date of Patent: January 25, 1994
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Kasei Corporation
    Inventors: Takashi Ushikubo, Kazunori Oshima, Atsushi Kayo, Tiaki Umezawa, Ken-ichi Kiyono, Itaru Sawaki