Hydration of ethylene

Ethyl alcohol (CH3CH2OH) production is considered by many to be the world s oldest profession. Fermenting carbohydrates is still the 

Synthetic ethyl alcohol (known as ethanol to differentiate it from fermentation alcohol) was originally produced hy the indirect hydration of ethylene in the presence of concentrated sulfuric acid. The formed mono-and diethyl sulfates are hydrolyzed with water to ethanol and sulfuric acid, which is regenerated  

The direct hydration of ethylene with water is the process currently used  

The hydration reaction is carried out in a reactor at approximately 300°C and 70 atmospheres. The reaction is favored at relatively lower temperatures and higher pressures. Phosphoric acid on diatomaceous earth is the catalyst. To avoid catalyst losses, a water/ethylene mole ratio less than one is used. Conversion of ethylene is limited to 4-5% under these conditions, and unreacted ethylene is recycled. A high selectivity to ethanol is obtained (95-97%). 

Ethanol s many uses can be conveniently divided into solvent and chemical uses. As a solvent, ethanol dissolves many organic-based materials such as fats, oils, and hydrocarbons. As a chemical intermediate, ethanol is a precursor for acetaldehyde, acetic acid, and diethyl ether, and it is used in the manufacture of glycol ethyl ethers, ethylamines, and many ethyl esters. 

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HOCHj CHjOH. Colourless, odourless, rather viscous hygroscopic liquid having a sweet taste, b.p. 197 C. Manufactured from ethylene chlorohydrin and NaHC03 solution, or by the hydration of ethylene oxide with dilute sulphuric acid or water under pressure at 195°C. Used in anti-freezes and coolants for engines (50 %) and in manufacture of polyester fibres (e.g. Terylene) and in the manufacture of various esters used as plasticizers. U.S. production 1979 1 900 000 tonnes. 

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... 

Although catalytic hydration of ethylene oxide to maximize ethylene glycol production has been studied by a number of companies with numerous materials patented as catalysts, there has been no reported industrial manufacture of ethylene glycol via catalytic ethylene oxide hydrolysis. Studied catalysts include sulfonic acids, carboxyUc acids and salts, cation-exchange resins, acidic zeoHtes, haUdes, anion-exchange resins, metals, metal oxides, and metal salts (21—26). Carbon dioxide as a cocatalyst with many of the same materials has also received extensive study. 

There are two main processes for the synthesis of ethyl alcohol from ethylene. The eadiest to be developed (in 1930 by Union Carbide Corp.) was the indirect hydration process, variously called the strong sulfuric acid—ethylene process, the ethyl sulfate process, the esterification—hydrolysis process, or the sulfation—hydrolysis process. This process is stiU in use in Russia. The other synthesis process, designed to eliminate the use of sulfuric acid and which, since the early 1970s, has completely supplanted the old sulfuric acid process in the United States, is the direct hydration process. This process, the catalytic vapor-phase hydration of ethylene, is now practiced by only three U.S. companies Union Carbide Corp. (UCC), Quantum Chemical Corp., and Eastman Chemical Co. (a Division of Eastman Kodak Co.). UCC imports cmde industrial ethanol, CIE, from SADAF (the joint venture of SABIC and Pecten [Shell]) in Saudi Arabia, and refines it to industrial grade. 

Other synthetic methods have been investigated but have not become commercial. These include, for example, the hydration of ethylene in the presence of dilute acids (weak sulfuric acid process) the conversion of acetylene to acetaldehyde, followed by hydrogenation of the aldehyde to ethyl alcohol and the Fischer-Tropsch hydrocarbon synthesis. Synthetic fuels research has resulted in a whole new look at processes to make lower molecular weight alcohols from synthesis gas. 

Direct Hydration of Ethylene. Hydration of ethylene to ethanol via a Hquid-phase process cataly2ed by dilute sulfuric acid was first demonstrated more than a hundred years ago (82). In 1923, the passage of an ethylene-steam mixture over alumina at 300°C was found to give a small yield of acetaldehyde, and it was inferred that this was produced via ethanol (83). Since the late 1920s, several industrial concerns have expressed interest in producing ethanol synthetically from ethylene over soHd catalysts. However, not until 1947 was the first commercial plant for the manufacture of ethanol by catalytic hydration started in the United States by Shell the same process was commerciali2ed in the United Kingdom in 1951. 

Chemistry. The stoichiometric equations pertinent to the vapor-phase hydration of ethylene over a catalyst support impregnated with phosphoric acid have been summari2ed (84). 

Other Methods of Preparation. In addition to the direct hydration process, the sulfuric acid process, and fermentation routes to manufacture ethanol, several other processes have been suggested. These include the hydration of ethylene by dilute acids, the hydrolysis of ethyl esters other than sulfates, the hydrogenation of acetaldehyde, and the use of synthesis gas. None of these methods has been successfilUy implemented on a commercial scale, but the route from synthesis gas has received a great deal of attention since the 1974 oil embargo. 

Hydration of Ethylene Usings Dilute Acids. A review of the early work on the hydration of ethylene using dilute acids, the weak acid process, has been given (48). The reaction is favored by the use of low temperatures and high pressures. Temperatures in the range of 150—250°C are the most frequendy quoted (132—137), although temperatures as low as 80°C have been reported (138). 

Hydration of Ethyl Ether. Using the same type of acid catalysts as in the hydration of ethylene to ethanol, ethyl ether can be hydrated to the alcohol. Catalysts that have been used for the hydration of ether include phosphoric acid (144), sulfuric acid (145,146), hydrochloric acid (147), metallic oxides (141,148,149) and sihcates (150). Sulfuric acid concentrations ranging from 5—25% at 200°C (144) to 63—70% at 110—135°C and 1.01—1.42 MPa (10—14 atm) (148) have been claimed. 

Hydrolysis of Ethyl Esters. The hydrolysis of esters (other than ethyl sulfates) is not a commercial route for producing ethanol. An indirect hydration of ethylene actually takes place during the proposed (153) hydrolysis of ethyl sulfite cataly2ed by silver sulfate. 

Ethyl Ether. Most ethyl ether is obtained as a by-product of ethanol synthesis via the direct hydration of ethylene. The procedure used for production of diethyl ether [60-29-7] from ethanol and sulfuric acid is essentially the same as that first described in 1809 (340). The chemical reactions involved in the production of ethyl ether by the indirect ethanol-from-ethylene process are like those for the production of ether from ethanol using sulfuric acid. 

Manufacture. Much of the diethyl ether manufactured is obtained as a by-product when ethanol (qv) is produced by the vapor-phase hydration of ethylene (qv) over a supported phosphoric acid catalyst. Such a process has the flexibiHty to adjust to some extent the relative amounts of ethanol and diethyl ether produced in order to meet existing market demands. Diethyl ether can be prepared directly to greater than 95% yield by the vapor-phase dehydration of ethanol in a fixed-bed reactor using an alumina catalyst (21). 

Davis et al. [9] have performed studies on the bateh hydration of ethylene oxide. Their work determined the value of the produet distribution eonstant K. This value is used in Equation 5-378 to determine the expeeted performanee in a plug flow reaetor. This value is also used in Equation 5-394 to illustrate the poor performanee that would be obtained with eomplete baekmixing. 

The main route for producing ethylene glycol is the hydration of ethylene oxide in presence of dilute sulfuric acid (Eigure 7-4) ... 

Acid-catalyzed alkene hydration is particularly suited to large-scale industrial procedures, and approximately 300,000 tons of ethanol are manufactured each year in the United States by hydration of ethylene. The reaction is of little value in the typical laboratory, however, because it requires high temperatures— 250 °C in the case of ethylene—and strongly acidic conditions. 

Ethanol for nonbeverage use is obtained by acid-catalyzed hydration of ethylene. Approximately 110 million gallons of ethanol a year is produced in the United States for use as a solvent or as a chemical intermediate in other industrial reactions. 

Meanwhile, Wacker Chemie developed the palladium-copper-catalyzed oxidative hydration of ethylene to acetaldehyde. In 1965 BASF described a high-pressure process for the carbonylation of methanol to acetic acid using an iodide-promoted cobalt catalyst (/, 2), and then in 1968, Paulik and Roth of Monsanto Company announced the discovery of a low-pressure carbonylation of methanol using an iodide-promoted rhodium or iridium catalyst (J). In 1970 Monsanto started up a large plant based on the rhodium catalyst. 

The half-life (t 1/2) of a reactant is the time required for its concentration to decrease to one-half its initial value. The rate of hydration of ethylene oxide (A) to ethylene glycol (C2H4O + H2O - C2H6O2) in dilute aqueous solution is proportional to the concentration of A with a proportionality constant kA = 4.11 X 10-5 s-1 at 20°C for a certain catalyst (HCIO4) concentration (constant). Determine the half-life (ti/2), or equivalent space-time (T1/2), in s, of the oxide (A) at 20°C, if the reaction is carried out... 

The rate of hydration of ethylene oxide (A) to ethylene glycol (C2H40 4- H20 C2H602)... 

Suppose the liquid-phase hydration of ethylene oxide (A) to ethylene glycol, CzHtOiA) + H2O - C2H6O2, takes place in a CSTR of volume (V) 10,000 L the rate constant is fcA = 2.464 X10-3 min-1 (Bronsted et al., 1929 see Example 4-3). 

Hydration of ethylene produces ethanol, C2H4 + H20 C2Hs0H. 

Direct catalytic hydration of ethylene in the vapor phase at 136 atm was studied by Mace Bonilla (Chem Eng Prog 50 385, 1954) who concluded that... 

Direct hydration, of ethylene, 10 538 Direct hydrogenation, 6 827 Direct immunosensors, 14 154 Direct ingot (dingot) method, 25 409 Direct initiation, 14 270 Direct injection (DI) diesel engines, 12 421 Direct inlet injection, gas chromatography, 6 383, 415-416 Directional couplers, 17 446 Directional drilling techniques, in sulfur extraction, 23 572 Directive 89/107/EEC (EU), 12 36 Direct liquefaction, 6 827 Direct marketing, technical service personnel and, 24 343 Direct metal nitridation, 17 211-213 aerosol flow reactor, 17 211-212 Direct methanol fuel cells (DMFC),... 

Synthesis gas is also the precursor to MTBE via methanol. The process requires isobutylene as well. Ethyl alcohol is made by direct, catalyzed hydration of ethylene. The route to isopropyl alcohol historically used to be solely indirect hydration of propylene, which occurs at much lower pressures and temperatures than the direct method, but advances in catalysis now make the direct route competitive. 

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