Ethylene in industry

Alkenes, also known as olefins, have a carbon-carbon double bond functional group. The simplest alkene is ethene (aka ethylene in industrial chemistry), and some representations of ethene are given in Figure 11.8. Notice that the geometry around alkene carbons is trigonal planar. 

We have created pilot installation for CVD production of multiwall carbon nanotubes from ethylene in industrial scale. MWNT produced by this process have average diameter 12-20 nm, surface area near 200-500 m2/g, mass content of minerals 6-20% for non-purified NT and <1% for purified NT. Electron images of MWNT samples with different surface area (200, 390, and 500 m2/g) are shown in Figs. 1-3. 

Schmerling, L. Free Radical-Induced Monoethylation with Ethylene, In Industrial and Laboratory Alkylation, ACS Symp. Ser. 1977, 55, 147-166. 

WittcofF, HA., Reuben, B.G., and Plotkin, J.S, (2013) Chemicals and polymers from ethylene, in Industrial Organic Chemicals,... 

The sulphuric acid and ethyl hydrogen sulphate required in reactions 1 and 3 respectively are regenerated in reactions 2 and 4, but the water formed is retted in the acid mixture and ultimately results in such a dilution that the caiversion into ether is no longer efficient. Furthermore, some ethylene is always formed this partly polymerises to give materials capable of reacting with sulphuric acid and reducing it to sulphur dioxide. In industrial practice, sulphuric acid is sufficient for the production of about 200 parts of ether. 

Extensive studies on the Wacker process have been carried out in industrial laboratories. Also, many papers on mechanistic and kinetic studies have been published[17-22]. Several interesting observations have been made in the oxidation of ethylene. Most important, it has been established that no incorporation of deuterium takes place by the reaction carried out in D2O, indicating that the hydride shift takes place and vinyl alcohol is not an intermediate[l,17]. The reaction is explained by oxypailadation of ethylene, / -elimination to give the vinyl alcohol 6, which complexes to H-PdCl, reinsertion of the coordinated vinyl alcohol with opposite regiochemistry to give 7, and aldehyde formation by the elimination of Pd—H. 

The conjugated diene 1 3 butadiene is used m the manufacture of synthetic rubber and IS prepared on an industrial scale m vast quantities Production m the United States is currently 4 X 10 Ib/year One industrial process is similar to that used for the prepara tion of ethylene In the presence of a suitable catalyst butane undergoes thermal dehy drogenation to yield 1 3 butadiene... 

Synthetic ethanol is derived from petroleum by hydration of ethylene In the United States some 700 million lb of synthetic ethanol is produced annually It is relatively inexpensive and useful for industrial applications To make it unfit for drinking it is denatured by adding any of a number of noxious materials exempting it from the high taxes most governments impose on ethanol used m beverages... 

Glycols and epoxides react with maleic anhydride to give linear unsaturated polyesters (61,62). Ethylene glycol and maleic anhydride combine to form the following repeating unit. This reaction is the first step in industrially important polyester resin production (see Polyesters, unsaturated). 

In the chemical industry, titanium is used in heat-exchanger tubing for salt production, in the production of ethylene glycol, ethylene oxide, propylene oxide, and terephthaHc acid, and in industrial wastewater treatment. Titanium is used in environments of aqueous chloride salts, eg, ZnCl2, NH4CI, CaCl2, and MgCl2 chlorine gas chlorinated hydrocarbons and nitric acid. 

Industrial ethanol is one of the largest-volume organic chemicals used in industrial and consumer products. The main uses for ethanol are as an intermediate in the production of other chemicals (Table 8) and as a solvent. As a solvent, ethanol is second only to water. Ethanol is a key raw material in the manufacture of dmgs, plastics, lacquers, poHshes, plasticizers, perfumes, and cosmetics. Around 1960, manufacture of ethanol was the top consumer of ethylene in the United States, but since 1965 it has rated below manufacture of ethylene oxide and polyethylene. 

The effect of physical processes on reactor performance is more complex than for two-phase systems because both gas-liquid and liquid-solid interphase transport effects may be coupled with the intrinsic rate. The most common types of three-phase reactors are the slurry and trickle-bed reactors. These have found wide applications in the petroleum industry. A slurry reactor is a multi-phase flow reactor in which the reactant gas is bubbled through a solution containing solid catalyst particles. The reactor may operate continuously as a steady flow system with respect to both gas and liquid phases. Alternatively, a fixed charge of liquid is initially added to the stirred vessel, and the gas is continuously added such that the reactor is batch with respect to the liquid phase. This method is used in some hydrogenation reactions such as hydrogenation of oils in a slurry of nickel catalyst particles. Figure 4-15 shows a slurry-type reactor used for polymerization of ethylene in a sluiTy of solid catalyst particles in a solvent of cyclohexane. 

An alkyne is a hydrocarbon that contains a carbon-carbon triple bond. Acetylene.. H—C= C—H, the simplest alkyne, was once widely used in industry as the starting material for the preparation of acetaldehyde, acetic acid, vinyl chloride, and other high-volume chemicals, but more efficient routes to these substances using ethylene as starting material are now available. Acetylene is still used in the preparation of acrylic polymers but is probably best known as the gas burned in high-temperature oxy-acetylene welding torches. 

Table 5 gives typical results of the wax cracking process to surfactant olefins. Compared with the pure a-olefins produced by the oligomerization reactions of ethylene the crack olefins are decreased in quality, especially due to the conjugated diene part (2-4%). Moreover, there are some problems in guaranteeing the wanted amounts of C20-C30 n-alkanes. Therefore in industrially de-... 

Raw materials for obtaining benzene, which is needed for the production of alkylbenzenes, are pyrolysis gasoline, a byproduct of the ethylene production in the steam cracking process, and coke oven gas. Reforming gasoline contains only small amounts of benzene. Large amounts of benzene are further produced by hydrodealkylation of toluene, a surplus product in industry. 

However, it could be expected that the share of the latter group will rise to the same extent as the rising importance of environmental digestibility. It is very possible that in the future the C16/C18 ester sulfonates will partly replace the alkylbenzenesulfonates produced from petrochemical raw material [6,7]. N. R. Smith [8] expects the a-sulfo methyl esters to be an alternative to ethylene-based surfactants. An increase in the production of surfactants based on ethylene is problematic, because in industrial countries ethylene production is occurring at 95% of capacity and more. 

For these reasons, despite the apparent advantages and also despite the fact that bulk polymerisation is so often the method of choice for the laboratory preparation of vinyl polymers, this technique is not widely used in industry. Only three polymers are produced in this way, namely poly(ethylene), poly(styrene), and poly(methyl methacrylate). 

Vapor Cloud Explosions. Lenoir and Davenport (Ref. 16) have summarized some major VCEs worldwide from 1921 to 1991. The materials involved in these incidents suggest that certain hydrocarbons—such as ethane, ethylene, propane, and butane—demonstrate greater potential for VCEs. Several factors may contribute to these statistics. These materials are prevalent in industry and are often handled in large quantities, increasing the potential for an incident. Certain inherent properties of the materials also contribute to their potential for explosion. These include flammability, reactivity, vapor pressure, and vapor density (with respect to air). 

Mixtures of aqueous sodium hypochlorite (presumably the 15% available chlorine commercial product) and ethylene glycol were observed to erupt violently after an induction period of 4 to 8 minutes. Caution is advised in view of the use of glycol as a cooling fluid in industrial reactors. 

Precipitation polymerizations dominated the early work which aimed at preparing industrially important hydrocarbon polymers in C02. In 1968, Hagiwara and coworkers explored the polymerization of ethylene in C02 using both gamma radiation and AIBN as free radical initiators [79]. Reactions were conducted at pressures of 440 bar and over the temperature range of 20-45 °C. 

Ethylene glycol industry, 24 270 Ethylene glycol monobutyl ether, acrylamide solubility in, l 290t Ethylene glycol production, economic aspects of, 12 652-653 Ethylene glycols (EGs), 10 664-665 12 113, 644-660. See also Glycols derivatives of, 12 656-660 diethers of, 12 658 from ethylene oxide, 10 596 health, safety, and environmental factors related to, 12 653-655 manufacture of, 12 648-652 monoethers of, 12 656-658 properties of, 12 645-648, 649t uses for, 12 645, 655-656... 

Hazard quotient (HQ), 25 238 Hazards. See also Fire hazards Radiation hazards Safety entries assessments of, 27 839, 846 of ethylene-propylene polymers, 10 716 of hydrogen peroxide, 14 61-63 oxygen-related, 17 760-761 penalties for, 73 155-156 recognition in industrial hygiene, 74 205-213... 

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