Detergent-range olefins, manufacture

A.luminum Jilkyl Chain Growth. Ethyl, Chevron, and Mitsubishi Chemical manufacture higher, linear alpha olefins from ethylene via chain growth on triethyl aluminum (15). The linear products are then used as oxo feedstock for both plasticizer and detergent range alcohols and because the feedstocks are linear, the linearity of the alcohol product, which has an entirely odd number of carbons, is a function of the oxo process employed. Alcohols are manufactured from this type of olefin by Sterling, Exxon, ICI, BASE, Oxochemie, and Mitsubishi Chemical. 

Consider the process for manufacture of detergent alcohols (ALC) by hydroformylation of liquid olefins in the Cn-C12 range (OLF) with syngas... 

As with ethylene polymerization, the metal-mediated conversion of ethylene to short chain Hnear a-olefins (range C4-C20) represents an important industrial process. Such oHgomers find considerable use in the manufacture of detergents, and plasticizers and in the production of linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE). An additional benefit of bis(imino)pyridine iron and cobalt catalysts is the ability to tune the Hgand environment to allow the formation of exclusively Unear a-olefins with activities and selectivities comparable with other weU-known late transition metal catalysts (e.g., the SHOP catalyst) [115]. 

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