Aqueous biphasic propylene hydroformylation

Two-phase, or biphasic, catalysis has gained increasing attention over the past two decades. One driving force undoubtedly was the successful implementation of large-scale applications in industry. Rhodium-catalyzed aqueous biphasic propylene hydroformylation, performed by the Ruhrchemie/Rhone-Polenc process, represents the most important carbonylation reaction today, with a total outcome of more than... 

The extension of classical aqueous biphasic propylene hydroformylation using additional supercritical carbon dioxide or supercritical substrate itself may provide a better catalytic performance when homogeneity of the reaction mixture at operating temperature is attained. This was investigated with [Rh(acac)(CO)2]/20 TPPTS... 

An example of a large scale application of the aqueous biphasic concept is the Ruhrchemie/Rhone-Poulenc process for the hydroformylation of propylene to n-butanal (Eqn. (15)), which employs a water-soluble rhodium(I) complex of trisulphonated triphenylphosphine (tppts) as the catalyst (Cornils and Wiebus, 1996). 

For the rhodium-catalyzed hydroformylation of propylene in an aqueous biphasic system. Cents et al. have shown that the accurate knowledge of the mass transfer parameters in the gas-liquid-liquid system is necessary to predict and optimize the production rate [180]. Choudhari et al. enhanced the reaction rate by a factor of 10-50 by using promoter Ugands for the hydroformylation of 1-octene in a biphasic aqueous system [175]. 

Kuntz subsequently showed that the RhCl (tppts) 3 catalyzed the hydroformylation of propylene in an aqueous biphasic system [29]. These results were further developed, in collaboration with Ruhrchemie, to become what is known as the Ruhrchemie/Rhone-Poulenc two-phase process for the hydroformylation of propylene to n-butanal [18, 19, 22, 30]. Ruhrchemie developed a method for the large scale production of tppts by sulfonation of triphenylphosphine with 30% oleum at 20 °C for 24 h. The product is obtained in 95% purity by dilution with water, extraction with a water insoluble amine, such as tri(isooctylamine), and pH-controlled re-extraction of the sodium salt of tppts into water with a 5% aqueous solution of NaOH. The first commercial plant came on stream in 1984, with a capacity of 100000 tons per annum of butanal. Today the capacity is ca. 400000 tpa and a cumulative production of millions of tons. Typical reaction conditions are T=120°C, P=50bar, CO/H2 = 1.01, tppts/Rh = 50-100, [Rh] = 10-1000 ppm. The RhH(CO) (tppts)3 catalyst is prepared in situ from e.g. rhodium 2-ethylhexanoate and tppts in water. 

The most important and oldest application of aqueous biphasic, homogeneous catalysis is hydroformylation (oxo process, Roelen reaction). This process is used to produce n-butyraldehyde, the desired main product of the reaction of propylene, which is converted by aldolization into 2-ethyUiexenal and this is finally hydrogenated to give 2-ethylhexanol (2-EH), the most economically important plasticizer alcohol (Scheme 1) ... 

The hydroformylation of propylene was an obvious choice as the first application of the new aqueous biphasic catalysis technology for several rea-... 

Various papers describe the aqueous biphasic hydroformylation for simple olefins as well as for functionalized olefins or dienes [154-174] (cf. the Section 6.1). In recent work [175], the synthesis of n-nonanal by consecutive isomerization and hydroformylation reactions of trans-4-octene has been described. The catalyst used was the in situ combination of Rh(acac)(CO)2 and the chelate phosphite BIPHE-PHOS. Performing the reaction in propylene carbonate the selectivity to n-nonanal could be raised up to 95%. If after the reaction the product is extracted with dodec-... 

Biphasic hydroformylation is a typical and complicated gas-liquid-liquid reaction. Although extensive studies on catalysts, ligands, and catalytic product distributions have appeared, the reaction mechanism has not been understood sufficiently and even contradictory concepts of the site of hydroformylation reaction were developed [11, 13, 20]. Studies on the kinetics of hydroformylation of olefins are not only instructive for improvement of the catalytic complexes and ligands but also provide the basic information for design and scale-up of novel commercial reactors. The kinetics of hydroformylation of different olefins, such as ethylene, propylene, 1-hexene, 1-octene, and 1-dodecene, using homogeneous or supported catalysts has been reported in the literature. However, the results on the kinetics of hydroformylation in aqueous biphasic systems are rather limited and up to now no universally accepted intrinsic biphasic kinetic model has been derived, because of the unelucidated reaction mechanism and complicated effects of multiphase mass transfer (see also Section 2.4.1.1.2). 

The kinetics of low-carbon olefins, ethylene [21] and propylene [22], in aqueous systems was reported and different rate models proposed. Wachsen et al. [13] proved that aqueous biphasic hydroformylation of propylene took place at the interfacial region, in contrast to two preliminary kinetic models that incorporate mass transport. 

The rhodium-based process for propylene hydroformylation is distinctly superior. Here the regioselectivity is high (-95%), and the reaction conditions are less severe (-50 bar, 120°C). An additional and significant advantage of the modern Rh-based process is that, by using a water-soluble phosphine in an aqueous biphasic system, the catalyst can be easily separated from the product. 

The prototype industrial process based on this concept is the Ruhrchemie-Rhone Poulenc process for the hydroformylation of propylene to butanal94,219,220 (see Section 7.3.1). Because of the use of appropriately modified water-soluble ligands, the catalyst resides and operates in the aqueous phase. The particular features of this process are the positive energy balance and easy catalyst recovery, namely, the simply circulation of the aqueous catalyst solution. New types of water-soluble Ir and Rh complexes with tris(hydroxymethyl)phosphine222 were described, and the biphasic hydroformylation of 1-hexene was accomplished in ionic liquids.223 A cationic sugar-substituted Rh complex displays high regioselectivity to branched aldehydes.224... 

However, the analysis did not clearly state at which interface the reaction took place gas-aqueous, or gas-organic phase. Also there exists a possibility that the hydroformylation takes place at the liquid-liquid interface, where gaseous propylene and syngas first dissolve largely in the organic phase and are then transported to the reaction location. When surfactants were added to accelerate the catalytic reaction, the performance indicated that the biphasic reaction might occur mainly in the interface of the aqueous-organic phases instead of in the bulk of the liquid mixture [2,14],... 

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