Combination step ethylene oxide production

Triethanolamine is produced from ethylene oxide and ammonia at 5 atm total pressure via three consecutive elementary chemical reactions in a gas-phase plug-flow tubular reactor (PFR) that is not insulated from the surroundings. Ethylene oxide must react with the products from the first and second reactions before triethanolamine is formed in the third elementary step. The reaction scheme is described below via equations (1-1) to (1-3). All reactions are elementary, irreversible, and occur in the gas phase. In the first reaction, ethylene oxide, which is a cyclic ether, and ammonia combine to form monoethanolamine ... 

In general, the ethylene to ethane selectivity is governed by the relative rates of the processes shown in Scheme 3.1. Here, combination of methyl radicals (step 2) is a homogeneous process, but all other steps can be both homogeneous and heterogeneous.294 It was also found that further oxidation of the C2 products (steps 4 and 6) becomes important only with increasing C2 concentration in the system.327... 

The production of higher hydrocarbons directly from methane by catalytic oxidative coupling is a novel methane conversion process which warrants further study. When combined with an ethylene oligomerisation step it is a potential alternative to conventional processes, based on synthesis gas, for producing liquid fuels from methane. However, further research is necessary to provide the information required to assess the commercial prospects for this route. 

Reductive elimination is the reverse reaction of oxidative addition (CN, VE, and ON reduce by two). A practical, most important example of the reductive elimination step is the elimination of alkane product from the catalyst in alkene hydrogenation (X = alkyl, Y = H). In ethylene oligomerization, reductive elimination plays an important role in the liberation of the 1-alkene product from the chromium metallacyclic intermediate. As this process combines several elementary steps, it is shown in Scheme 6.16.8 below to sum up this topic. 

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