Hydrocarbons liquid-phase oxidation

Currently, almost all acetic acid produced commercially comes from acetaldehyde oxidation, methanol or methyl acetate carbonylation, or light hydrocarbon liquid-phase oxidation. Comparatively small amounts are generated by butane liquid-phase oxidation, direct ethanol oxidation, and synthesis gas. Large amounts of acetic acid are recycled industrially in the production of cellulose acetate, poly (vinyl alcohol), and aspirin and in a broad array of other... 

Quaternary ammonium salts exhibit high catalytic activity in radical-chain reactions of hydrocarbons liquid phase oxidation by [1, 2]. Tetraalkylammonium halides accelerate radical decomposition of hydroperoxides [3,4] that are primary molecular products of hydrocarbons oxidation reaction. Reaction rate of the hydroperoxides decomposition in the presence of quaternary ammonium salts is determined by the nature of the salt anion [4] as well as cation [5]. The highest reaction rate of the tert-butyl hydroperoxide and cumene hydroperoxide decomposition has been observed in the case of iodide anions as compared with bromide and chloride ones [4]. tetraalkylammonium bromides tetraethylammonium... 

Butane-Naphtha Catalytic Liquid-Phase Oxidation. Direct Hquid-phase oxidation ofbutane and/or naphtha [8030-30-6] was once the most favored worldwide route to acetic acid because of the low cost of these hydrocarbons. Butane [106-97-8] in the presence of metallic ions, eg, cobalt, chromium, or manganese, undergoes simple air oxidation in acetic acid solvent (48). The peroxidic intermediates are decomposed by high temperature, by mechanical agitation, and by action of the metallic catalysts, to form acetic acid and a comparatively small suite of other compounds (49). Ethyl acetate and butanone are produced, and the process can be altered to provide larger quantities of these valuable materials. Ethanol is thought to be an important intermediate (50) acetone forms through a minor pathway from isobutane present in the hydrocarbon feed. Formic acid, propionic acid, and minor quantities of butyric acid are also formed. 

Liquid-phase oxidation of lower hydrocarbons has for many years been an important route to acetic acid [64-19-7]. In the United States, butane has been the preferred feedstock, whereas ia Europe naphtha has been used. Formic acid is a coproduct of such processes. Between 0.05 and 0.25 tons of formic acid are produced for every ton of acetic acid. The reaction product is a highly complex mixture, and a number of distillation steps are required to isolate the products and to recycle the iatermediates. The purification of the formic acid requires the use of a2eotropiag agents (24). Siace the early 1980s hydrocarbon oxidation routes to acetic acid have decliaed somewhat ia importance owiag to the development of the rhodium-cataly2ed route from CO and methanol (see Acetic acid). 

N. M. Emanuel, E. T. Denisov, and Z. K. Maizus, Liquid Phase Oxidation of Hydrocarbons, Plenum Press, New York, 1967. 

Liquid-Phase Oxidation. Liquid-phase catalytic oxidation of / -butane is a minor production route for acetic acid manufacture. Formic acid (qv) also is produced commercially by Hquid-phase oxidation of / -butane (18) (see HYDROCARBON OXIDATION). 

Autooxidation. Liquid-phase oxidation of hydrocarbons, alcohols, and aldehydes by oxygen produces chemiluminescence in quantum yields of 10 to 10 ° ein/mol (128—130). Although the efficiency is low, the chemiluminescent reaction is important because it provides an easy tool for study of the kinetics and properties of autooxidation reactions including industrially important processes (128,131). The light is derived from combination of peroxyl radicals (132), which are primarily responsible for the propagation and termination of the autooxidation chain reaction. The chemiluminescent termination step for secondary peroxy radicals is as follows ... 

Catalysis by Transition Metal Ions and Complexes in Liquid-Phase Oxidation of Hydrocarbons and Aldehydes by Dioxygen... 

Oxidation of organic compounds by dioxygen is a phenomenon of exceptional importance in nature, technology, and life. The liquid-phase oxidation of hydrocarbons forms the basis of several efficient technological synthetic processes such as the production of phenol via cumene oxidation, cyclohexanone from cyclohexane, styrene oxide from ethylbenzene, etc. The intensive development of oxidative petrochemical processes was observed in 1950-1970. Free radicals participate in the oxidation of organic compounds. Oxidation occurs very often as a chain reaction. Hydroperoxides are formed as intermediates and accelerate oxidation. The chemistry of the liquid-phase oxidation of organic compounds is closely interwoven with free radical chemistry, chemistry of peroxides, kinetics of chain reactions, and polymer chemistry. 

Chain Mechanism of Liquid-Phase Oxidation of Hydrocarbons... 

CL accompanies many reactions of the liquid-phase oxidation of hydrocarbons, ketones, and other compounds. It was discovered in 1959 for liquid-phase ethylbenzene oxidation [219,220]. This phenomenon was intensively studied in the 1960s and 1970s, providing foundation for several methods of study of oxidation, decay of initiators, and kinetics of antioxidant action [12,17,221], Later this technique was effectively used to study the mechanism of solid polymer oxidation (see Chapter 13). 

VF Tsepalov. The Study of Elementary Reactions of Liquid-Phase Oxidation of Alkylaromatic Hydrocarbons. Doctoral Thesis Dissertation, Institute of Chemical Physics, Chernogolovka, 1975, pp 3-40 [in Russian],... 

ACID CATALYSIS IN LIQUID-PHASE OXIDATION OF HYDROCARBONS AND ALCOHOLS... 

Heterogeneous catalysis is widely used in technology for gas-phase oxidation of hydrocarbons to alcohols, aldehydes, epoxides, anhydrides, etc. Homogeneous catalysis predominates in the liquid-phase oxidation technology. Nevertheless, a series of experimental studies was devoted in the 1970s to 1990s to heterogeneous catalysis. The main objects of study were metal oxides and metals as catalysts. 

The heterogeneous catalyst accelerates hydrocarbon oxidation. The rate of oxidation increases with increasing concentration of the catalyst. However, this increase in the oxidation rate with the catalyst concentration is not unlimited. The oxidation rate reaches a maximum value and does not increase thereafter. Moreover, the cessation of the reaction was observed and very often at a very small increase in the catalyst concentration. Such phenomenon was named critical phenomenon. The basis of critical phenomenon lies in the chain mechanism of oxidation and the dual ability of the catalyst surface to initiate and terminate chains. Numerous observations and studies of critical phenomenon in catalytic liquid-phase oxidations were performed [271 283]. Here are a few examples. 

Vardanyan [65,66] discovered the phenomenon of CL in the reaction of peroxyl radicals with the aminyl radical. In the process of liquid-phase oxidation, CL results from the disproportionation reactions of primary and secondary peroxyl radicals, giving rise to trip-let-excited carbonyl compounds (see Chapter 2). The addition of an inhibitor reduces the concentration of peroxyl radicals and, hence, the rate of R02 disproportionation and the intensity of CL. As the inhibitor is consumed in the oxidized hydrocarbon the initial level of CL is recovered. On the other hand, the addition of primary and secondary aromatic amines to chlorobenzene containing some amounts of alcohols, esters, ethers, or water enhances the CL by 1.5 to 7 times [66]. This effect is probably due to the reaction of peroxyl radicals with the aminyl radical, since the addition of phenol to the reaction mixture under these conditions must extinguish CL. Indeed, the fast exchange reaction... 

Anthracene and 2,6-dinitrophenol terminate chains in oxidizing PP reacting with alkyl as well as with peroxyl radicals [50]. It is important to note that the last two inhibitors retard the liquid phase oxidation of hydrocarbons and aldehydes only by the reaction with peroxyl... 

Metals and metal oxides, as a rule, accelerate the liquid-phase oxidation of hydrocarbons. This acceleration is produced by the initiation of free radicals via catalytic decomposition of hydroperoxides or catalysis of the reaction of RH with dioxygen (see Chapter 10). In addition to the catalytic action, a solid powder of different compounds gives evidence of the inhibiting action [1-3]. Here are a few examples. The following metals in the form of a powder retard the autoxidation of a hydrocarbon mixture (fuel T-6, at T= 398 K) Mg, Mo, Ni, Nb V, W, and Zn [4,5]. The retarding action of the following compounds was described in the literature. 

There seems to be special promise in oxidizing liquefied hydrocarbon gases at temperatures and pressures approximating critical levels. That such reactions are highly effective is attested, for example, by the liquid-phase oxidation of butane, one of the simplest and most efficient methods of producing acetic acid and methyl ethyl ketone. 

Formation of products containing less than four carbon atoms is not related to the catalytic activity of the metal on the decomposition of hydroperoxides. Hence, the liquid-phase oxidation of hydrocarbons involves heterogeneous catalytic reactions of isomerization and decomposition of peroxide radicals, proceeding on the reactor surface. 

The results obtained by liquid-phase oxidation or co-oxidation of various hydrocarbons are reviewed, and new results are reported for new kinds of compounds such as alkyl-aromatics, alcohols, and ethers, which were also systematically studied by co-oxidation. Gathering all kinetic data and discussing them in connection with data on absolute termination constants, obtained by other groups through physical measurements, enables us to estimate the termination and propagation rate constants for about 40 compounds and to present characteristic values for some new classes of compounds. Examples demonstrate that co-oxidation studies make it possible to explain the behavior of complex compounds reacting by different kinds of bonds, and more particularly the behavior of polymers oxidized in solution. 

Substituting divalent or trivalent elements for the A1 in the framework has been successfully carried out by several groups yielding novel heterogeneous catalysts (metal-substituted ALPOS, MALPOs Thomas et al 2001) for hydrocarbon oxidation and liquid phase oxidation. MALPO catalysts can be complementary to metal-doped silicalite catalysts. Particularly interesting compounds are MALPOs in which a divalent metal (Me) substitutes for the framework Al +, for example MALPO-36 (where M = Mg, Mn, Zn, Co) and MALPO-34 (M = Mg, Mn, Co etc). 

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