Hydroformylation cobalt catalysts

Hydroformylation. Cobalt catalysts are commonly used in industry for this reaction, but rhodium catalysts are more active and more selective. Other less accessible rhodium catalysts have been found to be effective Rh4(CO)i2 and HRh(CO)[P(CsH5)3]3. ... 

Prior to 1975, reaction of mixed butenes with syn gas required high temperatures (160—180°C) and high pressures 20—40 MPa (3000—6000 psi), in the presence of a cobalt catalyst system, to produce / -valeraldehyde and 2-methylbutyraldehyde. Even after commercialization of the low pressure 0x0 process in 1975, a practical process was not available for amyl alcohols because of low hydroformylation rates of internal bonds of isomeric butenes (91,94). More recent developments in catalysts have made low pressure 0x0 process technology commercially viable for production of low cost / -valeraldehyde, 2-methylbutyraldehyde, and isovaleraldehyde, and the corresponding alcohols in pure form. The producers are Union Carbide Chemicals and Plastic Company Inc., BASF, Hoechst AG, and BP Chemicals. 

There are currentiy no commercial producers of C-19 dicarboxyhc acids. During the 1970s BASF and Union Camp Corporation offered developmental products, but they were never commercialized (78). The Northern Regional Research Laboratory (NRRL) carried out extensive studies on preparing C-19 dicarboxyhc acids via hydroformylation using both cobalt catalyst and rhodium complexes as catalysts (78). In addition, the NRRL developed a simplified method to prepare 9-(10)-carboxystearic acid in high yields using a palladium catalyst (79). 

C-19 dicarboxyhc acid can be made from oleic acid or derivatives and carbon monoxide by hydroformylation, hydrocarboxylation, or carbonylation. In hydroformylation, ie, the Oxo reaction or Roelen reaction, the catalyst is usually cobalt carbonyl or a rhodium complex (see Oxo process). When using a cobalt catalyst a mixture of isomeric C-19 compounds results due to isomerization of the double bond prior to carbon monoxide addition (80). 

The nickel or cobalt catalyst causes isomerization of the double bond resulting in a mixture of C-19 isomers. The palladium complex catalyst produces only the 9-(10)-carboxystearic acid. The advantage of the hydrocarboxylation over the hydroformylation reaction is it produces the carboxyUc acids in a single step and obviates the oxidation of the aldehydes produced by hydroformylation. 

Hydroformylation. In hydroformylation, the 0x0 reaction, ethylene reacts with synthesis gas (CO + H2) over a cobalt catalyst at 60—200°C... 

In 1996, consumption in the western world was 14.2 tonnes of rhodium and 3.8 tonnes of iridium. Unquestionably the main uses of rhodium (over 90%) are now catalytic, e.g. for the control of exhaust emissions in the car (automobile) industry and, in the form of phosphine complexes, in hydrogenation and hydroformylation reactions where it is frequently more efficient than the more commonly used cobalt catalysts. Iridium is used in the coating of anodes in chloralkali plant and as a catalyst in the production of acetic acid. It also finds small-scale applications in specialist hard alloys. 

In the hydroformylation of lower alkenes using a modified cobalt catalyst complex separation is achieved by distillation. The ligands are high-boiling so that they remain with the heavy ends when these are removed from the alcohol product. Distillation is not possible when higher alcohols or aldehydes are produced, because of decomposition of the catalyst ligands at the higher temperatures required. Rhodium complexes can usually also be removed by distillation, since these complexes are relatively stable. 

The polymers were converted to supported catalysts corresponding to homogeneous complexes of cobalt, rhodium and titanium. The cobalt catalyst exhibited no reactivity in a Fischer-Tropsch reaction, but was effective in promoting hydroformylation, as was a rhodium analog. A polymer bound titanocene catalyst maintained as much as a 40-fold activity over homogeneous titanocene in hydrogenations. The enhanced activity indicated better site isolation even without crosslinking. 

Until recently, the hydroformylation using palladium had been scarcely explored as the activity of palladium stayed behind that of more active platinum complexes. The initiating reagents are often very similar to those of platinum, i.e., divalent palladium salts, which under the reaction conditions presumably form monohydrido complexes of palladium(II). A common precursor is (39). The mechanism for palladium catalysts is, therefore, thought to be the same as that for platinum. New cationic complexes of palladium that are highly active as hydroformylation catalysts were discovered by Drent and co-workers at Shell and commercial applications may be expected, involving replacement of cobalt catalysts. 

Cobalt carbonyls are the oldest catalysts for hydroformylation and they have been used in industry for many years. They are used either as unmodified carbonyls, or modified with alkylphosphines (Shell process). For propene hydroformylation, they have been replaced by rhodium (Union Carbide, Mitsubishi, Ruhrchemie-Rhone Poulenc). For higher alkenes, cobalt is still the catalyst of choice. Internal alkenes can be used as the substrate as cobalt has a propensity for causing isomerization under a pressure of CO and high preference for the formation of linear aldehydes. Recently a new process was introduced for the hydroformylation of ethene oxide using a cobalt catalyst modified with a diphosphine. In the following we will focus on relevant complexes that have been identified and recently reported reactions of interest. 

Q Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis and Hydroformylation on Cobalt Catalysts The Thermodynamic Control... 

With cobalt catalysts, hydroformylation of ethyl cinnamate gave 91% of the hydrogenation product ethyl hydrocinnamate (15) and only 8% of the expected lactone, 16 (72). However, rhodium catalysis was effective in directing the reaction in favor of hydroformylation (70). The comparative results obtained with cobalt and rhodium are outlined in Table XXV. 

The catalytic cycle for hydroformylation reactions has also been established for certain homogeneous catalysts. Scheme 8.4 illustrates that for HRh(CO)2(PPh3)2, although the cycle is the same for the analogous cobalt catalyst. 

The hydroformylation of alkenes was accidentally discovered by Roelen while he was studying the Fischer-Tropsch reaction (syn-gas conversion to liquid fuels) with a heterogeneous cobalt catalyst in the late thirties. In a mechanistic experiment Roelen studied whether alkenes were intermediates in the "Aufbau" process of syn-gas (from coal, Germany 1938) to fuel. He found that alkenes were converted to aldehydes or alcohols containing one more carbon atom. It took more than a decade before the reaction was taken further, but now it was the conversion of petrochemical hydrocarbons into oxygenates that was desired. It was discovered that the reaction was not catalysed by the supported cobalt but in fact by HCo(CO)4 which was formed in the liquid state. 

The tppts process has been commercialised by Ruhrchemie (now Celanese), after the initial work conducted by workers at Rhone-Poulenc, for the production of butanal from propene. Since 1995 Hoechst (now Celanese) also operates a hydroformylation plant for 1-butene. The partly isomerised, unconverted butenes are not recycled but sent to a reactor containing a cobalt catalyst. The two-phase process is not suited for higher alkenes because of the... 

These results promote a potential use of cobalt catalysts instead of expensive rhodium-based catalysts for the hydroformylation in SCCO2 [16,17,209, 210]. Although the main goal of this study was to demonstrate catalyst recycling, it must be noted that the catalytic performances have been obtained at process parameters and imder conditions that were far from being optimized. 

Hydroformylation (0.xo process). Production of aldehydes by catalytic reaction of an olefm with carbon monoxide and hydrogen. Cobalt catalysts are often used. 

---