Hydroformylation of butenes

Compared to propene, butenes show a lower solubility in water. Due to this the observed hydroformylation reaction rate of butene mixtures like raffinate-II (in general 40 % butene-1, 40 % butene-2, 20 % butane isomers) is significantly lower than that found for propene. However, a slight increase in the catalyst concentration is sufficient to achieve satisfying space-time yields for the pro-duction of valeric aldehydes. As a very selective catalyst the Rh/TPPTS- stem does not catalyze the hydroformylation of butene-2... 

Important early work by Consiglio and Pino and Consiglio et al. on the asymmetric hydroformylation of butenes was published as early as 1982. In this work, the hydroformylation of 1-butene and ( ) and (Z)-2-butene was carried out under different conditions using different chiral complexes of rhodium and platinum. The highest enantiomeric excess of 47% was actually achieved using the platinum complex [((—)-DIOP)Pt(SnCl3)Cl] (DIOP = 2,2-dimethyl-4,5-bis(diphenylphosphinomethyl)-l,3-dioxolane) ... 

Scheme 14.4 Hydroformylation of butenes and subsequent transformation (n-regioselectively).

An early attempt to hydroformylate butenediol using a cobalt carbonyl catalyst gave tetrahydro-2-furanmethanol (95), presumably by aHybc rearrangement to 3-butene-l,2-diol before hydroformylation. Later, hydroformylation of butenediol diacetate with a rhodium complex as catalyst gave the acetate of 3-formyl-3-buten-l-ol (96). Hydrogenation in such a system gave 2-methyl-1,4-butanediol (97). 

The odd-carbon stmcture and the extent of branching provide amyl alcohols with unique physical and solubiUty properties and often offer ideal properties for solvent, surfactant, extraction, gasoline additive, and fragrance appHcations. Amyl alcohols have been produced by various commercial processes ia past years. Today the most important iadustrial process is low pressure rhodium-cataly2ed hydroformylation (oxo process) of butenes. 

Conventional triorganophosphite ligands, such as triphenylphosphite, form highly active hydroformylation catalysts (95—99) however, they suffer from poor durabiUty because of decomposition. Diorganophosphite-modified rhodium catalysts (94,100,101), have overcome this stabiUty deficiency and provide a low pressure, rhodium catalyzed process for the hydroformylation of low reactivity olefins, thus making lower cost amyl alcohols from butenes readily accessible. The new diorganophosphite-modified rhodium catalysts increase hydroformylation rates by more than 100 times and provide selectivities not available with standard phosphine catalysts. For example, hydroformylation of 2-butene with l,l -biphenyl-2,2 -diyl... 

These reactions are also quite sensitive to steric factors, as shown by the fact that if 1-butene reacts with di(j iAisoamyl)borane the initially formed product is 99% substituted in the 1-position (15) compared to 93% for unsubstituted borane. Similarly, the product obtained from hydroformylation of isobutylene is about 97% isoamyl alcohol and 3% neopentyl alcohol (17). Reaction of isobutylene with aluminum hydride yields only triisobutjlaluininum. 

Primary Amyl Alcohols. Primary amyl alcohols (qv) are manufactured by hydroformylation of mixed butenes, followed by dehydrogenation (114). Both 1-butene and 2-butene yield the same product though in slightly different ratios depending on the catalyst and conditions. Some catalyst and conditions produce the alcohols in a single step. By modifying the catalyst, typically a cobalt carbonyl, with phosphoms derivatives, such as tri( -butyl)phosphine, the linear alcohol can be the principal product from 1-butene. 

The catalysts used in hydroformylation are typically organometallic complexes. Cobalt-based catalysts dominated hydroformylation until 1970s thereafter rhodium-based catalysts were commerciahzed. Synthesized aldehydes are typical intermediates for chemical industry [5]. A typical hydroformylation catalyst is modified with a ligand, e.g., tiiphenylphoshine. In recent years, a lot of effort has been put on the ligand chemistry in order to find new ligands for tailored processes [7-9]. In the present study, phosphine-based rhodium catalysts were used for hydroformylation of 1-butene. Despite intensive research on hydroformylation in the last 50 years, both the reaction mechanisms and kinetics are not in the most cases clear. Both associative and dissociative mechanisms have been proposed [5-6]. The discrepancies in mechanistic speculations have also led to a variety of rate equations for hydroformylation processes. 

A lot of research has been published on hydroformylation of alkenes, but the vast majority of the effort has been focused on the chemistry of various metal-ligand systems. Quantitative kinetic studies including modeling of rates and selectivities are much more scarce. In this work, we present the approach to modeling of hydroformylation kinetics and gas-solubility. Hydroformylation of 1-butene with a rhodium-based catalyst was selected as a case study. 

Hydroformylation of 1-butene in the presence of the Rh catalyst gave pentanal (P) and 2-methyl bntanal as the main products. Just trace amounts of c/5-and trans-1-butene were detected as by-prodncts. No butane was detected in experiments, where a stoichiometric ratio of CO and H2 were used. Based on preliminary considerations of prodnct distribntions, a kinetic model was developed. The kinetic parameters obtained from the model were well identified and physically reasonable. The prodnct concentrations are predicted very well by the kinetic model. The kinetic model can be further refined by considering detailed reaction mechanisms and extending it to the domain of lower partial pressures of CO and H2. 

The synthesis, aggregation behavior, and catalytic activity of Rh complexes of Xantphos derivatives (129) with surface-active pendant groups have been described.416 The complex [HRh(CO)(TPPTS)3] was used as a catalyst precursor in the hydroformylation of 1-butene, 1-octene, and styrene under biphasic reaction conditions 417 The two-phase hydroformylation of buta-1,3-diene with [HRh(CO)(TPPTS)3], with excess TPPPS, gives high yields of C5-monoaldehydes.418 The coordination behavior of the catalytic species HRh(130)(CO)2] was studied by HP NMR spectroscopy which showed the desired bis-equatorial coordination of the ligand to the rhodium center.419... 

Gas Recycle technology has been licensed worldwide by Union Carbide-Davy for the hydroformylation of propene.[9] It has also been operated by Union Carbide for ethene hydroformylation. Its use with butene is feasible, but at the margin of operability. Liquid Recycle, described below, is a better option for butene. 

In subsequent work the same supported catalysts were used in different reactor setups [20] (Figure 3.3). A vapour-phase reactor in which the supported catalyst was mounted on a bed was used for the hydroformylation of volatile alkenes such as cis-2-butene and trifluoropropene. The initial activities and selectivity s were similar to those of the homogeneous solutions, i.e. a TOF of 114 and 90% ee in the hydroformylation of trifluoropropene was reported. No rhodium was detected in the product phase, which means less then 0.8% of the loaded rhodium had leached. The results were, however, very sensitive to the conditions applied and, especially at longer reaction times, the catalyst decomposed. In a second approach the polymer supported complex was packed in a stainless steal column and installed in a continuous flow set-up. 

This process is also applicable to hydroformylation of 1-butene to produce pentanal with high linearity of approx. 98%, if bisphosphite ligands are used. In contrast to phosphanes monophosphite/rhodium catalysts often... 

Because the thermal separation of products has been substituted by a liquid-liquid separation, the two phase technology should be best suited for hydroformylation of longer chain olefins. But with rising chain length of the olefins the solubility in the aqueous catalyst phase drops dramatically and as a consequence the reaction rate. Only the hydroformylation of 1-butene proceeds with bearable space-time yield. This is applied on a small scale for production of valeraldehyde starting from raffinate II. Because the sulfonated triphenylphosphane/rhodium catalyst exhibits only slow isomerization and virtually no hydroformylation of internal double bonds, only 1-butene is converted. The remaining raffinate III, with some unconverted 1-butene and the unconverted 2-butene, is used in a subsequent hydroformy-lation/hydrogenation for production of technical amylalcohol, a mixture of linear and branched C5-alcohols. 

The third generation process concerns the Ruhrchemie/Rhone-Poulenc process utilizing a two-phase system containing water-soluble rhodium-tppts in one phase and the product butanal in the organic phase. The process has been in operation since 1984 by Ruhrchemie (or Celanese, nowadays). The system will be discussed in section 8.2.5. Since 1995 this process is also used for the hydroformylation of 1-butene. 

The only other olefin feedstock which is hydroformylated in an aqueous/organic biphasic system is a mixture of butenes and butanes called raffinate-II [8,61,62]. This low-pressure hydroformylation is very much like the RCH-RP process for the production of butyraldehyde and uses the same catalyst. Since butenes have lower solubility in water than propene, satisfactory reaction rates are obtained only with increased catalyst concentrations. Otherwise the process parameters are similar (Scheme 4.3), so much that hydroformylation of raffinate-11 or propene can even be carried out in the same unit by slight adjustment of operating parameters. 

Raffinate-II typically consists of40 % 1-butene, 40 % 2-butene and 20 % butane isomers. [RhH(CO)(TPPTS)3] does not catalyze the hydroformylation of internal olefins, neither their isomerization to terminal alkenes. It follows, that in addition to the 20 % butane in the feed, the 2-butene content will not react either. Following separation of the aqueous catalyts phase and the organic phase of aldehydes, the latter is freed from dissolved 2-butene and butane with a counter flow of synthesis gas. The crude aldehyde mixture is fractionated to yield n-valeraldehyde (95 %) and isovaleraldehyde (5 %) which are then oxidized to valeric add. Esters of n-valeric acid are used as lubricants. Unreacted butenes (mostly 2-butene) are hydroformylated and hydrogenated in a high pressure cobalt-catalyzed process to a mixture of isomeric amyl alcohols, while the remaining unreactive components (mostly butane) are used for power generation. Production of valeraldehydes was 12.000 t in 1995 [8] and was expected to increase later. 

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