Adipic acid oxidizing cyclohexane

Cyclohexane is also a precursor for adipic acid. Oxidizing cyclohexane in the liquid-phase at lower temperatures and for longer residence times (than for KA oil) with a cobalt acetate catalyst produces adipic acid ... 

Another reaction which enjoys much commercial interest is the production of adipic acid from cyclohexane oxidation. The two types of processes that are employed commercially are outlined in Figure 24. 

Liquid phase oxidation of hydrocarbons by molecular oxygen forms the basis for a wide variety of petrochemical processes,3 "16 including the manufacture of phenol and acetone from cumene, adipic acid from cyclohexane, terephthalic acid from p-xylene, acetaldehyde and vinyl acetate from ethylene, propylene oxide from propylene, and many others. The majority of these processes employ catalysis by transition metal complexes to attain maximum selectivity and efficiency. 

Cyclohexane. Petroleum-derived cyclohexane is the significant commercial raw material for adipic acid manufacture. Cyclohexane may be converted by oxidation to adipic acid by either of two basically different processes. One of these, direct single-step oxidation, has received con-... 

Fig. 28. Production of adipic acid from cyclohexane using MnAPO-36 catalyst. Metal-modified aluminophosphates are the most frequently used for this reaction, that is oxidation of cyclohexane.

Homogeneous catalysts are used for many large-scale oxidation processes. Some of the most important large-scale oxidation processes are acetaldehyde from ethylene, adipic acid from cyclohexane, tere-phthalic acid from p-xylene, and propylene oxide (PO) from propylene. The mechanisms of these reactions are very different and can be broadly classified into three categories. 

Since adipic acid has been produced in commercial quantities for almost 50 years, it is not surprising that many variations and improvements have been made to the basic cyclohexane process. In general, however, the commercially important processes stiU employ two major reaction stages. The first reaction stage is the production of the intermediates cyclohexanone [108-94-1] and cyclohexanol [108-93-0], usuaHy abbreviated as KA, KA oil, ol-one, or anone-anol. The KA (ketone, alcohol), after separation from unreacted cyclohexane (which is recycled) and reaction by-products, is then converted to adipic acid by oxidation with nitric acid. An important alternative to this use of KA is its use as an intermediate in the manufacture of caprolactam, the monomer for production of nylon-6 [25038-54-4]. The latter use of KA predominates by a substantial margin on a worldwide basis, but not in the United States. 

Although many variations of the cyclohexane oxidation step have been developed or evaluated, technology for conversion of the intermediate ketone—alcohol mixture to adipic acid is fundamentally the same as originally developed by Du Pont in the early 1940s (98,99). This step is accomplished by oxidation with 40—60% nitric acid in the presence of copper and vanadium catalysts. The reaction proceeds at high rate, and is quite exothermic. Yield of adipic acid is 92—96%, the major by-products being the shorter chain dicarboxytic acids, glutaric and succinic acids,and CO2. Nitric acid is reduced to a combination of NO2, NO, N2O, and N2. Since essentially all commercial adipic acid production arises from nitric acid oxidation, the trace impurities patterns ate similar in the products of most manufacturers. 

Other processes explored, but not commercialized, include the direct nitric acid oxidation of cyclohexane to adipic acid (140—143), carbonylation of 1,4-butanediol [110-63-4] (144), and oxidation of cyclohexane with ozone [10028-15-5] (145—148) or hydrogen peroxide [7722-84-1] (149—150). Production of adipic acid as a by-product of biological reactions has been explored in recent years (151—156). 

Cyclohexane. The LPO of cyclohexane [110-82-7] suppUes much of the raw materials needed for nylon-6 and nylon-6,6 production. Cyclohexanol (A) and cyclohexanone (K) maybe produced selectively by using alow conversion process with multiple stages (228—232). The reasons for low conversion and multiple stages (an approach to plug-flow operation) are apparent from Eigure 2. Several catalysts have been reported. The selectivity to A as well as the overall process efficiency can be improved by using boric acid (2,232,233). K/A mixtures are usually oxidized by nitric acid in a second step to adipic acid (233) (see Cyclohexanol and cyclohexanone). 

Adipic acid (qv) has a wide variety of commercial uses besides the manufacture of nylon-6,6, and thus is a common industrial chemical. Many routes to its manufacture have been developed over the years but most processes in commercial use proceed through a two-step oxidation of cyclohexane [110-83-8] or one of its derivatives. In the first step, cyclohexane is oxidized with air at elevated temperatures usually in the presence of a suitable catalyst to produce a mixture of cyclohexanone [108-94-1] and cyclohexanol [108-93-0] commonly abbreviated KA (ketone—alcohol) or KA oil ... 

A mixture of succinic (15—25 wt %), glutaric (45—55 wt %), and adipic acid (25—35 wt %) is obtained as a by-product in the oxidation of cyclohexane to adipic acid. In 1993, the production of adipic acid by this process was in the range of two million metric tons, which corresponds to a production of about 100,000 metric tons of the mixture of the three acids. 

Benzene is hydrogenated to cyclohexane. Cyclohexane is then oxidized to cyclohexanol, cyclohexanone, or adipic acid (qv). Adipic acid is used to produce nylon. Cyclohexane manufacture was responsible for about 14% of benzene consumption in 1988. 

Homogeneous Oxidation Catalysts. Cobalt(II) carboxylates, such as the oleate, acetate, and naphthenate, are used in the Hquid-phase oxidations of -xylene to terephthaUc acid, cyclohexane to adipic acid, acetaldehyde (qv) to acetic acid, and cumene (qv) to cumene hydroperoxide. These reactions each involve a free-radical mechanism that for the cyclohexane oxidation can be written as... 

Cyclohexanone shows most of the typical reactions of aUphatic ketones. It reacts with hydroxjiamine, phenyUiydrazine, semicarbazide, Grignard reagents, hydrogen cyanide, sodium bisulfite, etc, to form the usual addition products, and it undergoes the various condensation reactions that are typical of ketones having cx-methylene groups. Reduction converts cyclohexanone to cyclohexanol or cyclohexane, and oxidation with nitric acid converts cyclohexanone almost quantitatively to adipic acid. 

The main process for obtaining adipic acid is the catalyzed oxidation of cyclohexane (Chapter 10). 

Essentially, all cyclohexane is oxidized either to a cyclohexanone-cyclohexanol mixture used for making caprolactam or to adipic acid. These are monomers for making nylon 6 and nylon 6/6. 

Oxidation of Cyclohexane (Cyclohexanone-Cyclohexanol and Adipic Acid)... 

The production of alcohols by the catalytic hydrogenation of carboxylic acids in gas-liquid-particle operation has been described. The process may be based on fixed-bed or on slurry-bed operation. It may be used, for example, for the production of hexane-1,6-diol by the reduction of an aqueous solution of adipic acid, and for the production of a mixture of hexane-1,6-diol, pentane-1,5-diol, and butane-1,4-diol by the reduction of a reaction mixture resulting from cyclohexane oxidation (CIO). 

In one approach cyclohexane is autoxidized to a mixture of cyclohexanol and cyclohexanone in the presence of a Co or Mn naphthenate catalyst. This mixture is subsequently oxidized to adipic acid using nitric acid as the oxidant in the presence of a Cu Vv catalyst. An alternative method using dioxygen in combination with Co or Mn in HOAc gives lower selectivities to adipic acid (70% vs 95%). Alternatively, autoxidation in the presence of stoichiometric amounts of boric acid produces cyclohexanol as the major product, which is subsequently oxidized to adipic acid using HNO3 in the presence of Cu Vv. The latter step produces substantial amounts of N2O as a waste product. 

Obviously, there is a definite need for cleaner, more efficient routes to adipic acid. The question which immediately arises is, naturally, what does the Amoco system do in cyclohexane oxidation In this context it is interesting to compare the relative oxidizabilities of toluene, cyclohexane, cyclohexanol and cyclohexanone (Table 2). 

Zaidi (ref. 28) has reported the autoxidation of cyclohexane in acetic acid, at 60-80 °C and 1 bar, in the presence of a Co(OAc)2/NaBr catalyst (4). Adipic acid was obtained in 31% yield. Based on the results obtained in alkylaromatic oxidations it would be interesting to try the Co/Mn/Br /HOAc system in cyclohexane oxidation. It is, however, difficult to believe that this has not already been done. 

C04-0063. One starting material for the preparation of nylon is adipic acid. Adipic acid is produced from the oxidation of cyclohexane ... 

C04-0071. If the oxidation reaction described in Problem is 76.5% efficient, what mass of cyclohexane is required to produce 3.50 kg of adipic acid ... 

The chromic acid oxidation of cyclohexanone to adipic acid via 2-hydroxy-cyclohexanone and cyclohexane-l,2-dione is third order , viz. 

Adipic acid is produced by oxidizing cyclohexane. The two-step process shown in Figure 18—1 is used for almost ail production. Cyclohexane is oxidized with air over a cobalt naphthenate catalyst to give a mixture of... 

The selective oxidations of the terminal positions of -alkanes are an example of substrate-shape selectivity. Product-shape selectivity has been used to enhance the selectivity of the type IIaRH oxidation of cyclohexane [66-68], For example, oxidation of cyclohexane at 373 K for 8 hr using FeAlPO-31 (pore aperture 5.4 A) as a catalyst resulted in 2.5% conversion to a mixture which contained 55.3% of adipic acid and 37.3% of a mixture of cyclohexanol and cyclohexanone [68]. In contrast, oxidation under identical conditions using FeAlPO-5 (pore aperture 7.3 A) resulted in only 9.2% of adipic acid and 89.5%... 

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