Industrial processes alphabutol

The simplest possible alkene oligomerization reaction, the dimerization of ethylene to butenes, is a well-studied reaction, and an industrial process was also developed for the selective formation of 1-butene42 (IFP Alphabutol process). 

IFP Industrial Department, Alphabutol Process for Butene-1 Manufacturing, IFP Publications Paris, 1988. 

Practical Applications. IFP s Alphabutol process is used to dimerize ethylene selectively to 1-butene.43,85 The significance of this technology is the use of 1-butene as a comonomer in the polymerization of ethylene to produce linear low-density polyethylene (see Section 13.2.6). Under the reaction conditions applied in industry (50-60°C, 22-27 atm), the selectivity of 1-butene formation is higher than 90% at the conversion of 80-85%. Since no metal hydride is involved in this system, isomerization does not take place and only a small amount of higher-molecular-weight terminal alkenes is formed. 

Commercial plants The AlphaSelect process is strongly backed by extensive Axens industrial experience in homogeneous catalysis, in particular, the Alphabutol process for producing butene-1 for which there are 19 units producing 312,000 tpy. 

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