Industrial Applications of Metathesis

The latest industrial application of metathesis was developed by Phillips who started up a plant in late 1985 at Cbannelview, Texas, on the L ondell Petrochemical Complex with a production capacity of 135,000 t/year of propylene from ethylene. This facility carries out the disproportionation of ethylene and 2-butenes, in the vapor phase, around 300 to 350°C, at about 0.5.10 Pa absolute, with a VHSV of 50 to 200 and a once-througb conversion of about 15 per cent 2-butenes are themselves obtained by the dimerization of ethylene in a homogeneous phase, which may be followed by a hydroisomerization step to convert the 1-butene formed (see Sections 13.3.2. A and B). IFP is also developing a liquid phase process in this area. 

Up to this point, our discussion has centered on industrial applications of metathesis in which petrochemical-derived starting materials have been used. 

The industrial applications of metathesis in SHOP, FEAST, and for the synthesis of polymers such as Vestenamer and Norsorex have already been discussed. The exquisite controls over the structures and... 

Further important industrial applications of olefin metathesis include the synthesis of 3,3-dimethyl-l-butene ( neohexene , intermediate for the production of musk perfume) from ethene and 2,4,4-trimethyl-2-pentene, the manufacture of a,co-dienes from ethene and cycloalkenes (reversed RCM), and the ROMP of cyclooctene and norbomene to Vestenamer and Norsorex , respectively. 

The treatment of equivalent amounts of two different alkenes with a metathesis catalyst generally leads to the formation of complex product mixtures [925,926]. There are, however, several ways in which cross metathesis can be rendered synthetically useful. One example of an industrial application of cross metathesis is the ethenolysis of internal alkenes. In this process cyclic or linear olefins are treated with ethylene at 50 bar/20 80 °C in the presence of a heterogeneous metathesis catalyst. The reverse reaction of ADMET/RCM occurs, and terminal alkenes are obtained. 

Scheme 5.55 First industrial application of the metathesis reaction.

Carbene species can be stabilized by complexation to metals and transferred to olefinic substrates in catalytic reactions. Although the main industrial application of carbenes is in metathesis (Chapter 6), an important application in the area of fine chemicals is to asymmetric cyclopropanation. 

Other potential industrial applications of olefin metathesis, including the... 

Besides the Triolefin Process or OCT, metathesis is a key step in a number of other industrial transformations used to produce small molecules. By far the most important application of metathesis for this task is connected with the Shell... 

Mol, J. Industrial applications of olefin metathesis. Journal of Molecular Catalysis A Chemical, 213(l) 39-45, 2004. 

Historically, the triolefin process, developed by Phillips, was the first industrial application of olefin metathesis [9-11]. It involved the preparation of high purity ethylene and but-2-ene from propene ... 

This overview has given industrial applications of the olefin metathesis reaction. If most commercial applications have been listed, only some of the non-commercialized ones were given but even so some conclusions can be drawn ... 

Supported metal oxide catalysts are widely employed in industrial applications alkane dehydrogenation, olefin polymerization, olefin metathesis, selective oxidation/ammoxida-tion/reduction of organic molecules (alkyl aromatics and propylene), and inorganic emissions (N2O, NO , H2S, SO2, and VOC) [1,3,7,11-13]. The initial industrial applications of supported metal oxide catalysts were limited to hydrocarbon dehydrogenation/hydro-genation and olefin polymerization/metathesis reactions. In more recent years, the number of applications of supported metal oxide catalysts for oxidation reactions has grown significantly due to their excellent oxidation characteristics in the manufacture of certain... 

Because of the importance of olefin metathesis in the industrial production of olefins and polymers, many different catalysts have been developed. Almost all of these are transition metal-derived, some rare exceptions being EtAlCl2 [758], Me4Sn/Al203 [759], and irradiated silica [760]. The majority of catalytic systems are based on tungsten, molybdenum, and rhenium, but titanium-, tantalum-, ruthenium-, osmium-, and iridium-based catalysts have also proven useful for many applications. 

Olefin metathesis chemistry has had a profound impact in several areas of chemical research, including organome-tallics, polymer chemistry, and small molecule synthesis,many of which have industrial applications. For example, CM is currently utilized in the commercial preparation of several agrochemicals, polymer and fuel additives, and pharmacophores. Unlike RCM reactions, which are typically conducted under dilute... 

In general, there are three modes of olefin metathesis ring closing metathesis (RCM),M ring opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP),5-6 and cross metathesis (CM).7-9 Although all three have industrial applications, the main use of olefin metathesis for fine chemicals production lies in the modes of CM and RCM (Scheme 28.1). 

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