Dehydrogenation of styrene

Styrene undergoes many reactions of an unsaturated compound, such as addition, and of an aromatic compound, such as substitution (2,8). It reacts with various oxidising agents to form styrene oxide, ben2aldehyde, benzoic acid, and other oxygenated compounds. It reacts with benzene on an acidic catalyst to form diphenylethane. Further dehydrogenation of styrene to phenylacetylene is unfavorable even at the high temperature of 600°C, but a concentration of about 50 ppm of phenylacetylene is usually seen in the commercial styrene product. 

Dehydrogenation of alkylbenzenes is not a convenient laboratory method but is used industrially to convert ethylbenzene to styrene... 

Dehydrogenation of alkylbenzenes although useful m the industrial preparation of styrene is not a general procedure and is not well suited to the laboratory prepara tion of alkenylbenzenes In such cases an alkylbenzene is subjected to benzylic bromi nation (Section 11 12) and the resulting benzylic bromide is treated with base to effect dehydrohalogenation... 

Rhenium oxides have been studied as catalyst materials in oxidation reactions of sulfur dioxide to sulfur trioxide, sulfite to sulfate, and nitrite to nitrate. There has been no commercial development in this area. These compounds have also been used as catalysts for reductions, but appear not to have exceptional properties. Rhenium sulfide catalysts have been used for hydrogenations of organic compounds, including benzene and styrene, and for dehydrogenation of alcohols to give aldehydes (qv) and ketones (qv). The significant property of these catalyst systems is that they are not poisoned by sulfur compounds. 

Styrene manufacture by dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene is simple ia concept and has the virtue of beiag a siagle-product technology, an important consideration for a product of such enormous volume. This route is used for nearly 90% of the worldwide styrene production. The rest is obtained from the coproduction of propylene oxide (PO) and styrene (SM). The PO—SM route is complex and capital-iatensive ia comparison to dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene, but it stiU can be very attractive. However, its use is limited by the mismatch between the demands for styrene and propylene oxides (qv). 

Fig. 4. Manufacture of styrene by adiabatic dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene A, steam superheater B, reactor section C, feed—effluent exchanger D,...

Fig. 5. Purification of styrene in the dehydrogenation reactor effluent in the FinaBadger styrene process A, ben2ene—toluene column B, ethylbenzene recycle column C, styrene finishing column and D, residue finishing. Courtesy of The Badger Company, Inc.

Other Technologies. As important as dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene is in the production of styrene, it suffers from two theoretical disadvantages it is endothermic and is limited by thermodynamic equiHbrium. The endothermicity requites heat input at high temperature, which is difficult. The thermodynamic limitation necessitates the separation of the unreacted ethylbenzene from styrene, which are close-boiling compounds. The obvious solution is to effect the reaction oxidatively ... 

Production of styrene from butadiene has also been extensively investigated. Recentiy, Dow announced licensing a process involving cyclodimerization of 1,3-butadiene to 4-vinylcyclohexene, followed by oxidative dehydrogenation of the vinylcyclohexene to styrene (65,66). The cyclodimerization step takes place in... 

The dehydrogenation of the mixture of m- and -ethyltoluenes is similar to that of ethylbenzene, but more dilution steam is required to prevent rapid coking on the catalyst. The recovery and purification of vinyltoluene monomer is considerably more difficult than for styrene owing to the high boiling point and high rate of thermal polymerization of the former and the complexity of the reactor effluent, which contains a large number of by-products. Pressures as low as 2.7 kPa (20 mm Hg) are used to keep distillation temperatures low even in the presence of polymerization inhibitor. The finished vinyltoluene monomer typically has an assay of 99.6%. 

Styrene. Commercial manufacture of this commodity monomer depends on ethylbenzene, which is converted by several means to a low purity styrene, subsequendy distilled to the pure form. A small percentage of styrene is made from the oxidative process, whereby ethylbenzene is oxidized to a hydroperoxide or alcohol and then dehydrated to styrene. A popular commercial route has been the alkylation of benzene to ethylbenzene, with ethylene, after which the cmde ethylbenzene is distilled to give high purity ethylbenzene. The ethylbenzene is direcdy dehydrogenated to styrene monomer in the vapor phase with steam and appropriate catalysts. Most styrene is manufactured by variations of this process. A variety of catalyst systems are used, based on ferric oxide with other components, including potassium salts, which improve the catalytic activity (10). 

Because much toluene is demethylated for use as benzene, considerable effort has been expended on developing processes in which toluene can be used in place of benzene to make directiy from toluene the same products that are derived from benzene. Such processes both save the cost of demethylation and utilize the methyl group already on toluene. Most of this effort has been directed toward manufacture of styrene. An alternative approach is the manufacture of i ra-methylstyrene by selective ethylation of toluene, followed by dehydrogenation. Resins from this monomer are expected to displace... 

Vinyltoluene. Viayltoluene is produced by Dow Chemical Company and is used as a resia modifier ia unsaturated polyester resias. Its manufacture is similar to that of styrene toluene is alkylated with ethylene, and the resulting ethyltoluene is dehydrogenated to yield vinyltoluene. Annual production is ia the range of 18,000—23,000 t/yr requiring 20,000—25,000 t (6-7.5 x 10 gal) of toluene. 

Benzene is alkylated with ethylene to produce ethylbenzene, which is then dehydrogenated to styrene, the most important chemical iatermediate derived from benzene. Styrene is a raw material for the production of polystyrene and styrene copolymers such as ABS and SAN. Ethylbenzene accounted for nearly 52% of benzene consumption ia 1988. 

Two or more soHd catalyst components can be mixed to produce a composite that functions as a supported catalyst. The ingredients may be mixed as wet or dry powders and pressed into tablets, roUed into spheres, or pelletized, and then activated. The promoted potassium ferrite catalysts used to dehydrogenate ethylbenzene in the manufacture of styrene or to dehydrogenate butanes in the manufacture of butenes are examples of catalysts manufactured by pelletization and calcination of physically mixed soHd components. In this case a potassium salt, iron oxide, and other ingredients are mixed, extmded, and calcined to produce the iron oxide-supported potassium ferrite catalyst. 

Another appHcation for this type catalyst is ia the purification of styrene. Trace amounts (200—300 ppmw) of phenylacetylene can inhibit styrene polymerization and caimot easily be removed from styrene produced by dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene using the high activity catalysts introduced in the 1980s. Treatment of styrene with hydrogen over an inhibited supported palladium catalyst in a small post reactor lowers phenylacetylene concentrations to a tolerable level of <50 ppmw without significant loss of styrene. 

Alkylation. Ethylbenzene [100-41 -4] the precursor of styrene, is produced from benzene and ethylene. The ethylation of benzene is conducted either ia the Hquid phase ia the preseace of a Eriedel-Crafts catalyst (AlCl, BE, EeCl ) or ia the vapor phase with a suitable catalyst. The Moasanto/Lummus process uses an aluminum chloride catalyst that yields more than 99% ethylbenzene (13). More recently, Lummus and Union Oil commercialized a zeoHte catalyst process for Hquid-phase alkylation (14). Badger and Mobil also have a vapor-phase alkylation process usiag zeoHte catalysts (15). Almost all ethylbenzene produced is used for the manufacture of styrene [100-42-5] which is obtained by dehydrogenation ia the preseace of a suitable catalyst at 550—640°C and relatively low pressure, <0.1 MPa (<1 atm). 

Example 4 Styrene from Ethylbenzene The principal reaction in the dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene is to styrene and hydrogen. 

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