Aqueous, catalyst

A Hquid-phase variation of the direct hydration was developed by Tokuyama Soda (78). The disadvantages of the gas-phase processes are largely avoided by employing a weakly acidic aqueous catalyst solution of a siHcotungstate (82). Preheated propylene, water, and recycled aqueous catalyst solution are pressurized and fed into a reaction chamber where they react in the Hquid state at 270°C and 20.3 MPa (200 atm) and form aqueous isopropyl alcohol. Propylene conversions of 60—70% per pass are obtained, and selectivity to isopropyl alcohol is 98—99 mol % of converted propylene. The catalyst is recycled and requites Htde replenishment compared to other processes. Corrosion and environmental problems are also minimized because the catalyst is a weak acid and because the system is completely closed. On account of the low gas recycle ratio, regular commercial propylene of 95% purity can be used as feedstock. 

After flashing the propylene, the aqueous solution from the separator is sent to the purification section where the catalyst is separated by a2eotropic distillation 88 wt % isopropyl alcohol is obtained overhead. The bottoms containing aqueous catalyst solution are recycled to the reactor, and the light ends are stripped of low boiling impurities, eg, diisopropyl ether and acetone. A2eotropic distillation yields dry isopropyl alcohol, and the final distillation column yields a product of more than 99.99% purity. 

Considerable work has been conducted on a water-soluble catalyst using sulfonated phosphine-modified rhodium. Details of this chemistry will be described in Chapter 5. The general concept (Figure 2.3) is to make the catalyst water soluble, then after product formation, decant the product. In order for the water-soluble catalyst to be effective, the alkene must dissolve in the aqueous layer. This has been demonstrated on a commercial basis using propene. The low solubility of higher alkenes in the aqueous catalyst layer has proven problematic. The desirable characteristic of the ligand, water solubility, is needed in the separation step but is a disadvantage in the reaction step. 

Phosphine soluble in aqueous catalyst in catalyst phase unsuitable... 

The use of a water-soluble phosphine based catalyst is not a preferred choice for octene hydroformylation. Although separation of nonanal and its condensation products from an aqueous catalyst should be facile, forming nonanal at a commercially viable rate could be challenging. In order to react, octene needs to be in the same phase as the catalyst, and octane has very low solubility in water. 

Because the thermal separation of products has been substituted by a liquid-liquid separation, the two phase technology should be best suited for hydroformylation of longer chain olefins. But with rising chain length of the olefins the solubility in the aqueous catalyst phase drops dramatically and as a consequence the reaction rate. Only the hydroformylation of 1-butene proceeds with bearable space-time yield. This is applied on a small scale for production of valeraldehyde starting from raffinate II. Because the sulfonated triphenylphosphane/rhodium catalyst exhibits only slow isomerization and virtually no hydroformylation of internal double bonds, only 1-butene is converted. The remaining raffinate III, with some unconverted 1-butene and the unconverted 2-butene, is used in a subsequent hydroformy-lation/hydrogenation for production of technical amylalcohol, a mixture of linear and branched C5-alcohols. 

By adding up to 36% ethylene glycol to the aqueous catalyst phase, the space-time yield could be boosted up to approx. 3 mt m-3 h-1 for propene hydroformylation, a factor of 20 in comparison to the conventional two-phase process without changing the reaction conditions. Because of this surprising speed-up, higher alpha-olefins up to 1-octene are converted with high to acceptable space-time yield (Fig. 22). Up to date this process is not commercialized, but has been tested in a continuous pilot plant. 

The resulting values are shown in Table 4. As expected, the diffusion coefficients of prenal and citral are smaller in water than in n-hexane. Since the mass transport coefficients in each boundary layer directly correlate with the diffusion coefficient (Eq. 3), this result confirms the assumption that the overall mass transport resistance can be predominantly referred to the aqueous catalyst phase ... 

As shown in Figure 16-2, high purity ethylene (99.7%) and oxygen (99.0%) are fed under pressure (100 psi) to a vertical reactor containing the aqueous catalyst solution. Reaction temperature is maintained at 250-275°F. Because the reaction is exothermic, heat liberated is partially removed by vaporizing the water present in the reactor. Malceup water is continuously fed to the reactor to maintain proper catalytic solution concentration. 

The industrial process requires a large phosphine excess ([P]/[Rh] = 21 1) which can be easily provided by the extremely water-soluble TPPTS. However, the reactants are insoluble in such an aqueous phase, therefore the reaction is mn in the presence of co-solvents, usually alcohols. (Less soluble TPPMS performs better at [P]/[Rh] = 3, probably its surfactant properties help in solubilizing the diene and methyl acetoacetate.) The organic products are easily separated from the aqueous catalyst solution which can be recycled. 

The reactions can be carried out in aqueous solutions or biphasic mixtures of the substrates with no additional solvent, in the presence of NaOAc (pH s 11.5) at 100 °C. At this pH the resting state of the catalyst is probably the dinuclear species depicted on Scheme 8.1, which falls apart upon coordination of the substrate alcohol. In this respect the catalyst system as very similar to that for the oxidation of terminal olefins [10,11]. Good results were obtained with 30 bar of air, however, an 8 % O2/N2 mixture can also be used, which further improves the safety of the process. Recycling of the aqueous catalyst solution is possible and is especially easy in case of biphasic reaction mixtures. Taking all these features, this Pd-catalyzed oxidation of alcohols is a green process, indeed. 

The Ruhrchemie/Rhone-Poulenc process is performed annually on a 600,000 metric ton scale (18). In this process, propylene is hydroformylated to form butyraldehyde. While the solubility of propylene in water (200 ppm) is sufficient for catalysis, the technique cannot be extended to longer-chain olefins, such as 1-octene (<3 ppm solubility) (20). Since the reaction occurs in the aqueous phase (21), the hydrophobicity of the substrate is a paramount concern. We overcame these limitations via the addition of a polar organic co-solvent coupled with subsequent phase splitting induced by dissolution of gaseous CO2. This creates the opportunity to run homogeneous reactions with extremely hydrophobic substrates in an organic/aqueous mixture with a water-soluble catalyst. After C02-induced phase separation, the catalyst-rich aqueous phase and the product-rich organic phase can be easily decanted and the aqueous catalyst recycled. 

The QPVP-Cu complex, which is an emulsifier, catalyzed the emulsion polymerization of XOH152. An aqueous solution of the QPVP-Cu complex and a benzene solution of XOH were mixed and stirred, then the system was emulsified and polymerization occurred. After polymerization, the reaction mixture could be separated into two layers, the aqueous catalyst solution, and the benzene solution containing the PPO polymer. The recovered catalyst solution could be used repeatedly. Polymerization was influenced by the pH value of the aqueous catalyst phase. Below pH 7 the main product was biphenoquinone and at pH 8—10 it was PPO. 

DSM370 has patented platinum systems based upon tetrasulfonated bidentate water soluble ligand 29 (Table 2 x=4, m=0, n=0) as catalysts for the hydroformylation of a mixture 1-butene (45%) and 2-butene (22%) with 33% butane at 100°C and 80 bar CO/H2 in an aqueous/methanol (300/32), CF3SO3H acidic medium. The olefin conversion was 86% and the selectivity to the aldehydes 95% (n/i ratio of 2.8) together with small amounts of aldolcondensation products and acids. The products were isolated from the aqueous catalyst mixture leaving the reaction zone by extraction with ether and the aqueous phase recycled to the reactor. 

DSM jointly with Du Pont de Nemours308 have patented platinum catalysts generated from the water soluble sulfonated ligand 30 (Table 2 m=0, n=0, m=l, n=2 m=l, n=l, Ar=nBu-S03Li) and used in the aqueous phase hydroformylation of internally unsaturated carboxylic acids, esters or nitriles to their corresponding formyl derivatives which are useful intermediates for the preparation of di-carboxylic acids (e.g. adipic acid). For example, TOFs up to 105 h-1 were achieved in the hydroformylation of 3-pentenoic acid catalysed by Pt/30 (m=0, n=0) at 100°C and 80 bar CO/H2 to give aldehydes with a selectivity of 83% (n/i=3.4), valeric acid (4.6%) and adipic acid (8.1%).308 The products were separated from the aqueous catalyst solution by extraction with ether. Five recycles of the aqueous catalyst solution showed that the Pt/30 (m=0, n=0) catalyst retains its activity. 

Primary amines can be synthesized selectively by the catalytic two-phase telomerization of butadiene and ammonia [Eq. (12)], provided that the two amines are extracted from the aqueous catalyst phase with a polar solvent immediately after their synthesis (104). 

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... 

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