Acetaldehyde dehydrogenation

FIGURE 1. Examples of reactions catalyzed by molybdenum containing enzymes. From top to bottom, hydroxylation of xanthine, hydroxylation of acetaldehyde, dehydrogenation of carbon monoxide, transhydroxylation of pyrogallol, oxidation of sulfite, reduction of nitrate, reduction of dimethylsulfoxide, oxidation of formate, reduction of polysulfide and formation of formylmethanofuran. 

This reaction consists of the condensation of two molecular equivalents of a 1,3 diketone (or a J3-keto-ester) with one equivalent of an aldehyde and one of ammonia. Thus the interaction of ethyl acetoacetate and acetaldehyde and ammonia affords the 1,4-dihy dro-pyridine derivative (1), which when boiled with dilute nitric acid readily undergoes dehydrogenation and aromatisation" to gb e the diethyl ester of collidine (or 2,4,6-trimethyl-pyridine-3,5 dicarboxylic acid (II)). For the initial condensation the solid aldehyde-ammonia can conveniently be used in place of the separate reagents. 

The aniline then reacts with the ap-unsaturated aldehyde by 1 4-addition the addition product, under the influence of strong acid, cyclises to form 1 2-dihydroquinaldine. The latter is dehydrogenated by the condensation products of aniline with acetaldehyde and with crotonaldehyde simultaneously produced ( .c., ethylideneaniline and crotonylideneaniline) these anils act as hydrogen acceptors and are thereby converted into ethylaniline and n-butyl-aniline respectively. 

Acetaldehyde, first used extensively during World War I as a starting material for making acetone [67-64-1] from acetic acid [64-19-7] is currendy an important intermediate in the production of acetic acid, acetic anhydride [108-24-7] ethyl acetate [141-78-6] peracetic acid [79-21 -0] pentaerythritol [115-77-5] chloral [302-17-0], glyoxal [107-22-2], aLkylamines, and pyridines. Commercial processes for acetaldehyde production include the oxidation or dehydrogenation of ethanol, the addition of water to acetylene, the partial oxidation of hydrocarbons, and the direct oxidation of ethylene [74-85-1]. In 1989, it was estimated that 28 companies having more than 98% of the wodd s 2.5 megaton per year plant capacity used the Wacker-Hoechst processes for the direct oxidation of ethylene. 

Although the selectivity of isopropyl alcohol to acetone via vapor-phase dehydrogenation is high, there are a number of by-products that must be removed from the acetone. The hot reactor effluent contains acetone, unconverted isopropyl alcohol, and hydrogen, and may also contain propylene, polypropylene, mesityl oxide, diisopropyl ether, acetaldehyde, propionaldehyde, and many other hydrocarbons and carbon oxides (25,28). 

Other routes to acrylonitrile, none of which achieved large-scale commercial appHcation, are acetaldehyde and HCN (56), propionittile dehydrogenation (57,58), and propylene and nitric oxide (59,60) ... 

Although the selectivity is high, minor amounts of by-products can form by dehydration, condensation, and oxidation, eg, propylene [115-07-17, diisopropyl ether, mesityl oxide [141-79-7] acetaldehyde [75-07-0], and propionaldehyde [123-38-6]. Hydrotalcites having different Al/(A1 + Mg) ratios have been used to describe a complete reaction network for dehydrogenation (17). This reaction can also be carried out in the Hquid phase. 

In a process which is now largely of historical interest, 1-butanol has been produced from ethanol [64-17-5] via successive dehydrogenation (to acetaldehyde [75-07-0]) condensation (to crotonaldehyde [4170-30-3]) and hydrogenation. 

The earhest commercial route to -butyraldehyde was a multistep process starting with ethanol, which was consecutively dehydrogenated to acetaldehyde, condensed to crotonaldehyde, and reduced to butyraldehyde. In the late 1960s, production of -butyraldehyde (and isobutyraldehyde) in Europe and the United States switched over largely to the Oxo reaction of propylene. 

Dehydrogenation. The dehydrogenation of ethyl alcohol to acetaldehyde can be effected by a vapor-phase reaction over various catalysts. 

There are two ways to produce acetaldehyde from ethanol oxidation and dehydrogenation. Oxidation of ethanol to acetaldehyde is carried out ia the vapor phase over a silver or copper catalyst (305). Conversion is slightly over 80% per pass at reaction temperatures of 450—500°C with air as an oxidant. Chloroplatinic acid selectively cataly2es the Uquid-phase oxidation of ethanol to acetaldehyde giving yields exceeding 95%. The reaction takes place ia the absence of free oxygen at 80°C and at atmospheric pressure (306). The kinetics of the vapor and Uquid-phase oxidation of ethanol have been described ia the Uterature (307,308). 

The reaction kinetics for the dehydrogenation of ethanol are also weU documented (309—312). The vapor-phase dehydrogenation of ethanol ia the presence of a chromium-activated copper catalyst at 280—340°C produces acetaldehyde ia a yield of 89% and a conversion of 75% per pass (313). Other catalysts used iaclude neodymium oxide and samarium hydroxide (314). 

During World War II, production of butadiene (qv) from ethanol was of great importance. About 60% of the butadiene produced in the United States during that time was obtained by a two-step process utilizing a 3 1 mixture of ethanol and acetaldehyde at atmospheric pressure and a catalyst of tantalum oxide and siHca gel at 325—350°C (393—397). Extensive catalytic studies were reported (398—401) including a fluidized process (402). However, because of later developments in the manufacture of butadiene by the dehydrogenation of butane and butenes, and by naphtha cracking, the use of ethanol as a raw material for this purpose has all but disappeared. 

Dehydrogenation processes in particular have been studied, with conversions in most cases well beyond thermodynamic equihbrium Ethane to ethylene, propane to propylene, water-gas shirt reaction CO -I- H9O CO9 + H9, ethylbenzene to styrene, cyclohexane to benzene, and others. Some hydrogenations and oxidations also show improvement in yields in the presence of catalytic membranes, although it is not obvious why the yields should be better since no separation is involved hydrogenation of nitrobenzene to aniline, of cyclopentadiene to cyclopentene, of furfural to furfuryl alcohol, and so on oxidation of ethylene to acetaldehyde, of methanol to formaldehyde, and so on. 

There are many ways to produce acetaldehyde. Historically, it was produced either hy the silver-catalyzed oxidation or hy the chromium activated copper-catalyzed dehydrogenation of ethanol. Currently, acetaldehyde is obtained from ethylene hy using a homogeneous catalyst (Wacker catalyst). The catalyst allows the reaction to occur at much lower temperatures (typically 130°) than those used for the oxidation or the dehydrogenation of ethanol (approximately 500°C for the oxidation and 250°C for the dehydrogenation). 

Photocatalytic dehydrogenation in the presence of heteropolyacids. Upon illumination with the UV quanta, heteropolyacid H4[SiW]204o] provides with the quantum yield cp = 0.2 (at X = 333 nm) and remarkable (ca. 100%) selectivity dehydrogenation of ethanol into acetaldehyde in water-ethanol mixtures [10] ... 

In acidic media, the reactivity of ethanol on Au electrodes is much lower than in alkaline media. The main product of the oxidation of ethanol on Au in an acidic electrolyte was found to be acetaldehyde, with small amounts of acetic acid [Tremiliosi-FiUio et al., 1998]. The different reactivities and the product distributions in different media were explained by considering the interactions between the active sites on Au, ethanol, and active oxygen species absorbed on or near the electrode surface. In acidic media, surface hydroxide concentrations are low, leading to relatively slow dehydrogenation of ethanol to form acetaldehyde as the main oxidation pathway. In contrast, in alkaline media, ethanol, adsorbed as an ethoxy species, reacts with a surface hydroxide, forming adsorbed acetate, leading to acetate (acetic acid) as the main reaction product. 

The lower total activity for Rh electrodes may be partly due to increased CO poisoning and slower CO electro-oxidation kinetics compared with Pt electrodes, as demonstrated by the number of voltammetric cycles required to oxidize a saturated CO adlayer from Rh electrodes (see Section 6.2.2) [Housmans et al., 2004]. In addition, it is argued that the barrier to dehydrogenation is higher on Rh than on Pt, leading to a lower overall reaction rate [de Souza et al., 2002]. These effects may also explain the lower product selectivity towards acetaldehyde and acetic acid, which require the dehydrogenation of weakly adsorbed species. 

Because hydrogen can easily be removed from a reaction stream, many dehydrogenations have been studied. These include dehydrogenation of methane to carbon,326 ethane to ethene,327,328 propane to propene,329 n-butane to butenes,330 isobutane to isobutene,331,332 cyclohexane to benzene,332-334 meth-ylcyclohexane to toluene 335 n-heptane to toluene,336 methanol to formaldehyde,330 and ethanol to acetaldehyde.337... 

While spectroscopic studies attempt to account for the formation of CH4, CO and C02, they do not show the pathway for the formation of large amounts of H2 in the POE reaction even at lower temperature, around 300 °C.108 It is possible that the acetaldehyde formed by the oxidative dehydrogenation could be partially oxidized to H2 and carbon oxides (see eqns (23) and (24) and Fig. 9). Participation of these reactions could account for the formation of large amounts of H2 in the partial oxidation of ethanol. Based on the experimental observation and thermodynamics of the reactions, a reaction pathway for the partial oxidation of ethanol has been proposed and it is shown in Scheme 5. The proposed pathway accounts for the experimental observation of large amount of H2 and C02 in the partial oxidation of ethanol even at lower temperatures, around 300 °C with traces of acetaldehyde and CO as well as small amount of methane.108... 

Catalysts were prepared by the incipient wetness impregnation. PdZn-alloy formation favors the oxidative dehydrogenation of ethanol to acetaldehyde rather than CH4 thereby producing H2 with high yield in the OSR at low temperatures... 

Freni et al 2 and Galvita et al 1 have employed a two-layer catalyst bed for the SRE reaction. Ethanol is dehydrogenated to acetaldehyde over a Cu/Si02 catalyst72 or decomposed to a mixture of methane, CO and H2 over a supported Pd catalyst87 in the first layer. A supported Ni catalyst in the second layer reformed the acetaldehyde or methane into syngas. The use of two-layer catalyst bed was reported to reduce the coke formation significantly. 

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