Economics alcohols

The use of methanol or ethanol as fuels started with the replacement of steam engines for farm machinery and train locomotives and, at the end of the nineteenth century, alcohols were used in internal combustion engines (ICE). During the first decade of the twentieth century, alcohols lost the race against gasoline-powered automobiles, even when they released less contaminants, a fact that deserved not concern at that time. The main reason for that was economic alcohols could not... 

To obtain a maximum yield of the acid it is necessary to hydrolyse the by-product, iaoamyl iaovalerate this is most economically effected with methyl alcoholic sodium hydroxide. Place a mixture of 20 g. of sodium hydroxide pellets, 25 ml. of water and 225 ml. of methyl alcohol in a 500 ml. round-bottomed flask fitted with a reflux (double surface) condenser, warm until the sodium hydroxide dissolves, add the ester layer and reflux the mixture for a period of 15 minutes. Rearrange the flask for distillation (Fig. II, 13, 3) and distil off the methyl alcohol until the residue becomes pasty. Then add about 200 ml. of water and continue the distfllation until the temperature reaches 98-100°. Pour the residue in the flask, consisting of an aqueous solution of sodium iaovalerate, into a 600 ml. beaker and add sufficient water to dissolve any solid which separates. Add slowly, with stirring, a solution of 15 ml. of concentrated sulphuric acid in 50 ml. of water, and extract the hberated acid with 25 ml. of carbon tetrachloride. Combine this extract with extract (A), dry with a httle anhydrous magnesium or calcium sulphate, and distil off the carbon tetrachloride (Fig. II, 13, 4 150 ml. distiUing or Claisen flask), and then distil the residue. Collect the wovaleric acid 172-176°. The yield is 56 g. 

Both of these methods are more economical in the consumption of alcohol and more convenient than that in which the acid is refluxed with a large excess of alcohol in the presence of concentrated sulphuric acid. An example of the latter procedure is described ... 

Recovery of the wopropyl alcohol. It is not usually economical to recover the isopropyl alcohol because of its lo v cost. However, if the alcohol is to be recovered, great care must be exercised particularly if it has been allowed to stand for several days peroxides are readily formed in the impure acetone - isopropyl alcohol mixtures. Test first for peroxides by adding 0-6 ml. of the isopropyl alcohol to 1 ml. of 10 per cent, potassium iodide solution acidified with 0-6 ml. of dilute (1 5) hydrochloric acid and mixed with a few drops of starch solution if a blue (or blue-black) coloration appears in one minute, the test is positive. One convenient method of removing the peroxides is to reflux each one litre of recovered isopropyl alcohol with 10-15 g. of solid stannous chloride for half an hour. Test for peroxides with a portion of the cooled solution if iodine is liberated, add further 5 g. portions of stannous chloride followed by refluxing for half-hour periods until the test is negative. Then add about 200 g. of quicklime, reflux for 4 hours, and distil (Fig. II, 47, 2) discard the first portion of the distillate until the test for acetone is negative (Crotyl Alcohol, Note 1). Peroxides generally redevelop in tliis purified isopropyl alcohol in several days. 

Since 1960, the Hquid-phase oxidation of ethylene has been the process of choice for the manufacture of acetaldehyde. There is, however, stiU some commercial production by the partial oxidation of ethyl alcohol and hydration of acetylene. The economics of the various processes are strongly dependent on the prices of the feedstocks. Acetaldehyde is also formed as a coproduct in the high temperature oxidation of butane. A more recently developed rhodium catalyzed process produces acetaldehyde from synthesis gas as a coproduct with ethyl alcohol and acetic acid (83—94). 

Catalyst recovery is a major operational problem because rhodium is a cosdy noble metal and every trace must be recovered for an economic process. Several methods have been patented (44—46). The catalyst is often reactivated by heating in the presence of an alcohol. In another technique, water is added to the homogeneous catalyst solution so that the rhodium compounds precipitate. Another way to separate rhodium involves a two-phase Hquid such as the immiscible mixture of octane or cyclohexane and aliphatic alcohols having 4—8 carbon atoms. In a typical instance, the carbonylation reactor is operated so the desired products and other low boiling materials are flash-distilled. The reacting mixture itself may be boiled, or a sidestream can be distilled, returning the heavy ends to the reactor. In either case, the heavier materials tend to accumulate. A part of these materials is separated, then concentrated to leave only the heaviest residues, and treated with the immiscible Hquid pair. The rhodium precipitates and is taken up in anhydride for recycling. 

Until World War 1 acetone was manufactured commercially by the dry distillation of calcium acetate from lime and pyroligneous acid (wood distillate) (9). During the war processes for acetic acid from acetylene and by fermentation supplanted the pyroligneous acid (10). In turn these methods were displaced by the process developed for the bacterial fermentation of carbohydrates (cornstarch and molasses) to acetone and alcohols (11). At one time Pubhcker Industries, Commercial Solvents, and National Distillers had combined biofermentation capacity of 22,700 metric tons of acetone per year. Biofermentation became noncompetitive around 1960 because of the economics of scale of the isopropyl alcohol dehydrogenation and cumene hydroperoxide processes. 

The economics of acetone production and its consequent market position are unusual. Traditional laws of supply and demand cannot be appHed because supply depends on the production of phenol and demand is controUed by the uses of acetone. Therefore, coproduct acetone from the cumene to phenol process will continue to dominate market supply. DeHberate production of acetone from isopropyl alcohol accommodates demand in excess of that suppHed by the phenol process. More than 75% of world and 90% of U.S. production comes from the cumene to phenol process. 

Economic Aspects. A number of secondary and tertiary acetylenic alcohols and glycols are manufactured by Air Products and Chemicals Co. In 1990, U.S. bulk prices of ethyloctynol, methylbutynol, and tetramethyldecynediol were about 8.35/kg, 3.95/kg, and 8.00/kg, respectively. 

Olefin Sources. The choice of feedstock depends on the alcohol product properties desired, availabiUty of the olefin, and economics. A given producer may either process different olefins for different products or change feedstock for the same appHcation. Feedstocks beheved to be currentiy available are as follows. 

R. F. Modlei, "Detergent Alcohols" in Chemical Economics Handbook SRI International, Menlo Park, Calif., 1987. 

In 1991, the relatively old and small synthetic fuel production faciHties at Sasol One began a transformation to a higher value chemical production facihty (38). This move came as a result of declining economics for synthetic fuel production from synthesis gas at this location. The new faciHties installed in this conversion will expand production of high value Arge waxes and paraffins to 123,000 t/yr in 1993. Also, a new faciHty for production of 240,00 t/yr of ammonia will be added. The complex will continue to produce ethylene and process feedstock from other Sasol plants to produce alcohols and higher phenols. 

Chemicals have long been manufactured from biomass, especially wood (sHvichemicals), by many different fermentation and thermochemical methods. For example, continuous pyrolysis of wood was used by the Ford Motor Co. in 1929 for the manufacture of various chemicals (Table 20) (47). Wood alcohol (methanol) was manufactured on a large scale by destmctive distillation of wood for many years until the 1930s and early 1940s, when the economics became more favorable for methanol manufacture from fossil fuel-derived synthesis gas. 

Alcohols Economics andFuture U.S. Gasoline Markets, Information Resources, Inc., Washington, D.C., 1984. 

Alcohol autoxidation is carried out in the range of 70—160°C and 1000—2000 kPa (10—20 atm). These conditions maintain the product and reactants as Hquids and are near optimum for practical hydrogen peroxide production rates. Several additives including acids, nitriles, stabHizers, and sequestered transition-metal oxides reportedly improve process economics. The product mixture, containing hydrogen peroxide, water, acetone, and residual isopropyl alcohol, is separated in a wiped film evaporator. The organics and water are taken overhead and further refined to recover by-product acetone and the... 

As of this writing, the process has not been commercialized, but apparendy the alcohol can be separated from its propylene oxide coproduct process to maintain an economically competitive position. The formation of organic hydroperoxides is a concern, as it was in the Shell process. 

Lower aHphatic amines can be prepared by a variety of methods, using many different types of raw materials. By far the largest commercial appHcations involve the reaction of alcohol with ammonia to form the corresponding amines. Other methods are employed depending on the particular amine desired, raw material availabiHty, plant economics, and the abiHty to seU co-products. The foUowing manufacturing methods are used commercially to produce the lower aLkylamines. Table 5 gives plant and capacity information for these methods. 

Halogenation. Normally, 2-halopropane derivatives are prepared from isopropyl alcohol most economically by reaction with the corresponding acid haUde. However, under appropriate conditions, other reagents, eg, phosphoms haUdes and elemental halogen, also react by replacement of the hydroxyl group to give the haUde (46). 

A more economical route to MQ resin uses low cost sodium sihcate and trimethylchlorosilane as inputs (eq. 35) (395). The sodium sihcate process is initiated by acidifying an aqueous sodium sihcate solution to a pH of 2. The resulting hydrosol quickly builds molecular weight. The rate of this increase is moderated by the addition of an alcohol such as 2-propanol. The hydrosol is subsequentiy silylated by the addition of trimethylchlorosilane. This process, which is kinetically sensitive and limited to synthesizing M/Q ratios of 1 or less, is preferred when MQ resins having high (>1%) OH content are required (395). 

Solvent for Displacement Reactions. As the most polar of the common aprotic solvents, DMSO is a favored solvent for displacement reactions because of its high dielectric constant and because anions are less solvated in it (87). Rates for these reactions are sometimes a thousand times faster in DMSO than in alcohols. Suitable nucleophiles include acetyUde ion, alkoxide ion, hydroxide ion, azide ion, carbanions, carboxylate ions, cyanide ion, hahde ions, mercaptide ions, phenoxide ions, nitrite ions, and thiocyanate ions (31). Rates of displacement by amides or amines are also greater in DMSO than in alcohol or aqueous solutions. Dimethyl sulfoxide is used as the reaction solvent in the manufacture of high performance, polyaryl ether polymers by reaction of bis(4,4 -chlorophenyl) sulfone with the disodium salts of dihydroxyphenols, eg, bisphenol A or 4,4 -sulfonylbisphenol (88). These and related reactions are made more economical by efficient recycling of DMSO (89). Nucleophilic displacement of activated aromatic nitro groups with aryloxy anion in DMSO is a versatile and useful reaction for the synthesis of aromatic ethers and polyethers (90). 

Anhydrous stannous chloride, a water-soluble white soHd, is the most economical source of stannous tin and is especially important in redox and plating reactions. Preparation of the anhydrous salt may be by direct reaction of chlorine and molten tin, heating tin in hydrogen chloride gas, or reducing stannic chloride solution with tin metal, followed by dehydration. It is soluble in a number of organic solvents (g/100 g solvent at 23°C) acetone 42.7, ethyl alcohol 54.4, methyl isobutyl carbinol 10.45, isopropyl alcohol 9.61, methyl ethyl ketone 9.43 isoamyl acetate 3.76, diethyl ether 0.49, and mineral spirits 0.03 it is insoluble in petroleum naphtha and xylene (2). 

Because of the economic interest in distilled spidts, each country has estabHshed standards for their vadous types of distilled beverages, and countdes mutually respect each other s alcohoHc beverage standards. U.S. Standards of Identity are given by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) (2). 

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