Butenes 1, from ethylene

IFP Process for 1-Butene from Ethylene. 1-Butene is widely used as a comonomer in the production of polyethylene, accounting for over 107,000 t in 1992 and 40% of the total comonomer used. About 60% of the 1-butene produced comes from steam cracking and fluid catalytic cracker effluents (10). This 1-butene is typically produced from by-product raffinate from methyl tert-huty ether production. The recovery of 1-butene from these streams is typically expensive and requires the use of large plants to be economical. Institut Francais du Petrole (IFP) has developed and patented the Alphabutol process which produces 1-butene by selectively dimerizing ethylene. 

Figure 7-8. A flow diagram of the Institute Francais du Petrole process for producing 1-butene from ethylene. ...

C are given in Table IV. The relatively greater proportion of 1-butene from ethylene-hexene copolymers indicates that there are two mechanisms for the formation of the butenes, one involving the butyl branches and that this pathway yields a much higher proportion (perhaps 100%) of 1-butene. The C4 hydrocarbons are apparently also formed by fragmentation of chain ends in the polymers. These are probably formed mainly by radiation-induced scission. 

Nickel phosphine metallacyclopentanes, especially tris(triphenylphosphine)-tetramethylnickel(II), catalyze the production of cyclobutene and 1-butene from ethylene [196]. The course of the reaction is depicted in the following reactions ... 

Ziegler discovered the selective formation of l-butene from ethylene promoted by AIR3 without undergoing the oligomerization of ethylene in the presence of a small amount of an Ni salt. This was called the Ni effect [3] which lead to the great discovery of the Ziegler catalyst, prepared by the combination of TiCU and EtjAl. 

Copolymers may also be produced with a catalyst containing both chromium oxide and nickel oxide supported on silica-alumina. It is well-known that nickel oxide—silica—alumina by itself makes predominantly butenes from ethylene. In the mixed catalyst, butenes that are formed on nickel oxide copolymerize with ethylene on the chromium oxide to form ethylene-butene copolymers. The fact that infrared shows only ethyl branching in the polymer indicates that the initial product... 

Prospective Processes. There has been much effort invested in examining routes to acetic acid by olefin oxidation or from ethylene, butenes, or j -butyl acetate. No product from these sources is known to have reached the world market the cost of the raw materials is generally prohibitive. 

Chain Structure. LLDPE resins are copolymers of ethylene and a-olefins with low a-olefin contents. Molecular chains of LLDPE contain units derived both from ethylene, —CH2—CH2—, and from the a-olefin, —CH2—CHR—, where R is C2H for ethylene—1-butene copolymers, for... 

Butene. Commercial production of 1-butene, as well as the manufacture of other linear a-olefins with even carbon atom numbers, is based on the ethylene oligomerization reaction. The reaction can be catalyzed by triethyl aluminum at 180—280°C and 15—30 MPa ( 150 300 atm) pressure (6) or by nickel-based catalysts at 80—120°C and 7—15 MPa pressure (7—9). Another commercially developed method includes ethylene dimerization with the Ziegler dimerization catalysts, (OR) —AIR, where R represents small alkyl groups (10). In addition, several processes are used to manufacture 1-butene from mixed butylene streams in refineries (11) (see BuTYLENEs). 

Similar to IFP s Dimersol process, the Alphabutol process uses a Ziegler-Natta type soluble catalyst based on a titanium complex, with triethyl aluminum as a co-catalyst. This soluble catalyst system avoids the isomerization of 1-butene to 2-butene and thus eliminates the need for removing the isomers from the 1-butene. The process is composed of four sections reaction, co-catalyst injection, catalyst removal, and distillation. Reaction takes place at 50—55°C and 2.4—2.8 MPa (350—400 psig) for 5—6 h. The catalyst is continuously fed to the reactor ethylene conversion is about 80—85% per pass with a selectivity to 1-butene of 93%. The catalyst is removed by vaporizing Hquid withdrawn from the reactor in two steps classical exchanger and thin-film evaporator. The purity of the butene produced with this technology is 99.90%. IFP has Hcensed this technology in areas where there is no local supply of 1-butene from other sources, such as Saudi Arabia and the Far East. 

Disproportionation of Olefins. Disproportionation or the metathesis reaction offers an opportunity to convert surplus olefins to other desirable olefins. Phillips Petroleum and Institut Fransais du Petrc le have pioneered this technology for the dimerization of light olefins. The original metathesis reaction of Phillips Petroleum was intended to convert propylene to 2-butene and ethylene (58). The reverse reaction that converts 2-butene in the presence of excess ethylene to propylene has also been demonstrated (59). A commercial unit with a capacity of about 136,000 t/yr of propylene from ethylene via 2-butene has been in operation in the Gulf Coast since 1985 (60,61). In this process, ethylene is first dimerized to 2-butene foUowed by metathesis to yield propylene. Since this is a two-stage process, 2-butene can be produced from the first stage, if needed. In the dimerization step, about 95% purity of 2-butene is achieved at 90% ethylene conversion. 

Many heterogeneous catalysts have been commercialized to dimerize ethylene to selectively yield 1-butene or 2-butene (66—70). Since ethylene is generally priced higher than butylenes, economics favor the production of butylenes from steam crackers, not from ethylene. An exceUent review on... 

Figure 8-7. The Phillips Petroleum Co. process for producing 2-butene and ethylene from propylene (1) metathesis reactor, (2) fractionator (to separate propylene recycle from propane), (3, 4) fractionator for separating ethylene, butylenes, and Cg. ...

Olefin metatheses are equilibrium reactions among the two-reactant and two-product olefin molecules. If chemists design the reaction so that one product is ethylene, for example, they can shift the equilibrium by removing it from the reaction medium. Because of the statistical nature of the metathesis reaction, the equilibrium is essentially a function of the ratio of the reactants and the temperature. For an equimolar mixture of ethylene and 2-butene at 350°C, the maximum conversion to propylene is 63%. Higher conversions require recycling unreacted butenes after fractionation. This reaction was first used to produce 2-butene and ethylene from propylene (Chapter 8). The reverse reaction is used to prepare polymer-grade propylene form 2-butene and ethylene ... 

In this process, which has been jointly developed by Institute Francais du Petrole and Chinese Petroleum Corp., the C4 feed is mainly composed of 2-butene (1-butene does not favor this reaction but reacts differently with olefins, producing metathetic by-products). The reaction between 1-butene and 2-butene, for example, produces 2-pentene and propylene. The amount of 2-pentene depends on the ratio of 1-butene in the feedstock. 3-Hexene is also a by-product from the reaction of two butene molecules (ethylene is also formed during this reaction). The properties of the feed to metathesis are shown in Table 9-1. Table 9-2 illustrates the results from the metatheses reaction at two different conversions. The main by-product was 2-pentene. Olefins in the range of Ce-Cg and higher were present, but to a much lower extent than C5. 

Figure 9-3. A flow diagram showing the metathesis process for producing polymer grade propylene from ethylene and 2-butene.

Similarly, the stereospecific formation of cis-2-butene from cis-2,3-dimethylthiirane dioxide19 may be rationalized in terms of a stereospecific ring opening to give the threo-sulfinate 120 which, in turn, decomposes stereospecifically to yield the cis-alkene, hydroxide ion and sulfur dioxide73. The parent thiirane dioxide fragments analogously to ethylene, hydroxide ion and sulfur dioxide (equation 49). 

Figure 19 (a) Peak melting temperature as a function of the branch content in ethylene-octene copolymers (labelled -O, and symbol —B (symbol, ) and -P (symbol, A) are for ethylene-butene and ethylene-propylene copolymers, respectively) and obtained from homogeneous metallocene catalysts show a linear profile, (b) Ziegler-Natta ethylene-octene copolymers do not show a linear relationship between peak melting point and branch content [125]. Reproduced from Kim and Phillips [125]. Reprinted with permission of John Wiley Sons, Inc. 

Figure 4 Plot of degree of crystallinity (XDSC) from DSC against crystallinity (Xp) determined by density measurements. (A), hydrogenated polybutadienes ( ), ethylene 1-butene copolymers ( ), ethylene 1-octene copolymers. Reprinted with permission from Ref. [72]. Copyright 1984 American Chemical Society. 

Pd2+ salts are useful reagents for oxidation reactions of olefins. Formation of acetaldehyde from ethylene is the typical example. Another reaction is the formation of vinyl acetate by the reaction of ethylene with acetic acid (16, 17). The reaction of acetic acid with butadiene in the presence of PdCl2 and disodium hydrogen phosphate to give butadienyl acetate was briefly reported by Stem and Spector (110). However, 1-acetoxy-2-butene (49) and 3-acetoxy-l-butene (50) were obtained by Ishii and co-workers (111) by simple 1,2- and 1,4-additions using PdCl2/CuCl2 in acetic acid-water (9 1). 

Figure 10. Temperature dependence of the yields of (O) butane, (A) ethylene and (HU butene from irradiation of poly(ethylene-co-l -hexene).

Table IV. Yields of Isobutene and 1-Butene from Irradiation of Ethylene-a-Olefin Copolymers at 150°C...

Technologies for the reverse process to produce propylene from ethylene and 2-butenes were also developed.138 139 The Arco process139 dimerizes ethylene to 2-butenes, which, in turn, are metathesized with ethylene to yield propylene. The process is not practiced at present, but it is a potential technology in case of a propylene shortage. 

An MNDO calculation of six bromonium ions derived from ethylene, propene, 2-butene, isobutylene, 2-methyl-2-butene and tetramethylethylene, 49-54 shows energy minima corresponding to symmetrical bridged ions for symmetrically substituted systems 49-51 and highly asymmetric bridged ions for non-symmetrically substituted species 52-54107. 

The superior properties of polypropylene terephthalate) (PPT) polymer and fibers over the chemically analogous poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET, used for soda bottles) and poly(butylene terephthalate) (PBT) have been well known for several decades PPT fibers are much more elastic and less brittle than PET and offer better recovery from stretching than PBT they are also easier to dye than either PET or PBT. Compared to the intermediate for PET, ethylene glycol, which is available inexpensively from ethylene oxide, and to that for PBT, butanediol, likewise available inexpensively from butene or butadiene, the intermediate for PPT, 1,3 propanediol (1,3-PPD or PDO), was not - and on a large scale is still not - available. Three processes, two chemical ones and one biotechnological, compete to change this situation (Figure 20.10). 

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