Acetaldehyde, synthesis from ethylene

Acrylonitrile and methacrylonitrile can be obtained from petro-chemical olefins [2] by the noncatalytic reactions of HCN with acetaldehyde, acetone (cyanohydrin is the intermediate in these processes) or oxiranes (Z-cyanoetltanol being the intermediate in the acrylonitrile synthesis from ethylene oxide). 

Acetaldehyde (ethanal) used to be the most important intermediate for the production of acetic acid. However, since 1970 the production of acetaldehyde lost importance as acetic acid production switched increasingly to methanol carbonylation. The reason for this development has to do with the different feedstock base for both processes. While the production of acetaldehyde starts from ethylene, the synthesis of acetic acid via methanol carbonylation uses the significantly cheaper synthesis gas (CO/H2) as feed, from which methanol is made first followed by a carbonylation step (see Section 6.15 for details). 

Acetic acid production in the United States has increased about eightfold in the last 40 years. From the 1930s, acetic acid was produced by a three-step synthesis from ethylene acid hydrolysis to ethanol, then catalytic dehydrogenation to acetaldehyde, then direct liquid-phase oxidation to acetic acid and acetic anhydride as coproducts ... 

The industrial synthesis of acetaldehyde from ethylene IS shown on page 644... 

Key intermediates in the industrial preparation of both nicotinamide and nicotinic acid are alkyl pyridines (Fig. 1). 2-Meth5l-5-ethylpyridine (6) is prepared in ahquid-phase process from acetaldehyde. Also, a synthesis starting from ethylene has been reported. Alternatively, 3-methylpyridine (7) can be used as starting material for the synthesis of nicotinamide and nicotinic acid and it is derived industrially from acetaldehyde, formaldehyde (qv), and ammonia. Pyridine is the principal product from this route and 3-methylpyridine is obtained as a by-product. Despite this and largely due to the large amount of pyridine produced by this technology, the majority of the 3-methylpyridine feedstock is prepared in this fashion. 

The recent dramatic increase in the price of petroleum feedstocks has made the search for high selectivities more urgent. Several new processes based on carbon monoxide sources are currently competing with older oxidation processes.103,104 The more straightforward synthesis of acetic acid from methanol carbonylation (Monsanto process) has made the Wacker process obsolete for the manufacture of acetaldehyde, which used to be one of the main acetic acid precursors. Several new methods for the synthesis of ethylene glycol have also recently emerged and will compete with the epoxidation of ethylene, which is not sufficiently selective. The direct synthesis of ethylene... 

Acetic acid is also an industrial chemical. It serves as a solvent, a starting material for synthesis, and a catalyst for a wide variety of reactions. Some industrial acetic acid is produced from ethylene, using a catalytic oxidation to form acetaldehyde, followed by another catalytic oxidation to acetic acid. 

Acrolein and condensable by-products, mainly acrylic acid plus some acetic acid and acetaldehyde, are separated from nitrogen and carbon oxides in a water absorber. However in most industrial plants the product is not isolated for sale, but instead the acrolein-rich effluent is transferred to a second-stage reactor for oxidation to acrylic acid. In fact the volume of acrylic acid production ca. 4.2 Mt/a worldwide) is an order of magnitude larger than that of commercial acrolein. The propylene oxidation has supplanted earlier acrylic acid processes based on other feedstocks, such as the Reppe synthesis from acetylene, the ketene process from acetic acid and formaldehyde, or the hydrolysis of acrylonitrile or of ethylene cyanohydrin (from ethylene oxide). In addition to the (preferred) stepwise process, via acrolein (Equation 30), a... 

Preliminary mechanistic studies (36) on synthesizing vinyl acetate from ethylene have indicated that it probably proceeds in a manner similar to the synthesis of acetaldehyde from ethylene (19). 

Reaction Mechanism. Any mechanism proposed for the vinylation of acetic acid by the hexenes must be able to account for the production of the high boiling products, 1,2-hexandiol mono- and diacetates (VIII, IX and X), and possibly hexylidene diacetate, as well as the hexenyl acetates. The currently accepted mechanism for synthesizing vinyl acetate from ethylene and acetic acid is derived from that postulated by Henry (i, 19), based on studies of the Wacker acetaldehyde synthesis. The key step in this mechanism is an insertion reaction (18). 

With oxo synthesis, Wacker-type oxidations of alkenes is one of the older homogeneous transition-metal-catalyzed reactions [1], The most prominent example of this type of reaction is the manufacture of acetaldehyde from ethylene. This well-known reaction, which has been successfully developed on an industrial scale (Wacker process), combines the stoichiometric oxidation of ethylene by palladium ) in aqueous solution with the in situ reoxidation of palladium(O) by molecular oxygen in the presence of a copper salt (Eqs. 1 -4) [2]. 

Acetaldehyde is obtained from ethylene in excellent yield, and this is the most attractive method of industrial synthesis since the metallic palladium formed in the reaction can be regenerated by atmospheric oxygen. 

Bubble columns, in which the liquid is the continuous phase, are used for slow reactions. Drawbacks with respect to packed columns are the higher pressure drop and the important degree of axial and radial mixing of both the gas and the liquid, which may be detrimental for the selectivity in complex reactions. On the other hand they may be used when the fluids carry solid impurities that would plug packed columns. In fact, many bubble column processes involve a finely divided solid catalyst that is kept in suspension, like the Rheinpreussen Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, described by Kolbel [1], or the former I. G. Farben coal hydrogen process, or vegetable oil hardening processes. Several oxidations are carried out in bubble columns the production of acetaldehyde from ethylene, of acetic acid from C4 fractions, of vinylchloride from ethylene by oxychlorina-tion, and of cyclohexanone from cyclohexanol. 

The period from 1970 to 1985 saw radical changes in the production of acetic acid and acetic anhydride. By 1985, both products would be generated not from ethylene, but from synthesis gas which in turn could be generated fi om abundant resources such as coal, natural gas, and in the future, biomass. At the end of this period, acetaldehyde became a very small contributor to the total acetyl product stream since it was no longer required to make acetic acid or acetic anhydride and ethylene would only be required to produce vinyl acetate and to meet a much diminished acetaldehyde market. These advances were the result of two significant process breakthroughs - the Monsanto Acetic Acid Process and the Eastman Chemical Company Acetic Anhydride Process which will be discussed below. 

As of 1985, production of the acetyl chemicals had changed entirely. From that time forward, the preferred processes would contain primarily synthesis gas. Ethylene was only needed for vinyl acetate production and to address the rapidly diminishing market for acetaldehyde. (Remember that the primary outlet for acetaldehyde was to make acetic acid and acetic anhydride, so it was no longer needed for these purposes with the advent of the new technologies.) A summary of the preferred production methods as of 1985 appears in Figure 6. 

Vinyl acetate, CH2=CH—OOC—CH3, is produced from ethylene and acetic acid or from acetaldehyde and acetic anhydride. The previously extensively used synthesis from acetylene and acetic acid is now too expensive. 

One distinguishes palladium(0)- and palladium(ll)-catalysed reactions. The most common palladium(O) transformations are the Mizoroki-Heck and the cross-coupling transformations such as the Suzuki-Miyaura, the Stille and the Sonogashira reactions, which allow the arylation or alkenylation of C=C double bonds, boronic acid derivates, stan-nanes and alkynes respectively [2]. Another important palladium(O) transformation is the nucleophilic substitution of usually allylic acetates or carbonates known as the Tsuji-Trost reaction [3]. The most versatile palladium(ll)-catalysed transformation is the Wacker oxidation, which is industrially used for the synthesis of acetaldehyde from ethylene [4]. It should be noted that many of these palladium-catalysed transformations can also be performed in an enantioselective way [5]. 

Since 1960, the Hquid-phase oxidation of ethylene has been the process of choice for the manufacture of acetaldehyde. There is, however, stiU some commercial production by the partial oxidation of ethyl alcohol and hydration of acetylene. The economics of the various processes are strongly dependent on the prices of the feedstocks. Acetaldehyde is also formed as a coproduct in the high temperature oxidation of butane. A more recently developed rhodium catalyzed process produces acetaldehyde from synthesis gas as a coproduct with ethyl alcohol and acetic acid (83—94). 

The price of acetaldehyde duriag the period 1950 to 1973 ranged from 0.20 to 0.22/kg. Increased prices for hydrocarbon cracking feedstocks beginning in late 1973 resulted in higher costs for ethylene and concurrent higher costs for acetaldehyde. The posted prices for acetaldehyde were 0.26/kg in 1974, 0.78/kg in 1985, and 0.92/kg in 1988. The future of acetaldehyde growth appears to depend on the development of a lower cost production process based on synthesis gas and an increase in demand for processes based on acetaldehyde activation techniques and peracetic acid. 

Other synthetic methods have been investigated but have not become commercial. These include, for example, the hydration of ethylene in the presence of dilute acids (weak sulfuric acid process) the conversion of acetylene to acetaldehyde, followed by hydrogenation of the aldehyde to ethyl alcohol and the Fischer-Tropsch hydrocarbon synthesis. Synthetic fuels research has resulted in a whole new look at processes to make lower molecular weight alcohols from synthesis gas. 

Other Methods of Preparation. In addition to the direct hydration process, the sulfuric acid process, and fermentation routes to manufacture ethanol, several other processes have been suggested. These include the hydration of ethylene by dilute acids, the hydrolysis of ethyl esters other than sulfates, the hydrogenation of acetaldehyde, and the use of synthesis gas. None of these methods has been successfilUy implemented on a commercial scale, but the route from synthesis gas has received a great deal of attention since the 1974 oil embargo. 

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