Ionic liquid continued separation

Ionic liquids represent a unique class of reaction media for catalytic processes, and their application in catalysis has entered a period of exploding growth. The number of catalytic reactions involving ionic liquids continues to increase rapidly. These liquids offer promising solutions to the problems associated with conventional organic solvents the potential advantages may include enhanced reaction rates, improved chemo- and regioselectivities, and facile separation of products and catalyst recovery. 

Room temperature ionic liquids continue to attract interest by both fundamental and applied researchers. Several general review articles have been published in recent years that describe not only their physical properties but also discuss how these physical properties can be applied for solvents used in separations and as replacement for organic solvents for homogeneously-catalyzed reactions. In this review, we focus our attention on those physical... 

The new Difasol process for manufacturing isooctenes consumes less catalyst. The process dimerizes n-butene in a continuous two-phase operation that uses the industrial Dimersol nickel catalyst dissolved in a chloroaluminate ionic liquid. The n-bu-tenes are introduced continuously into the reactor, and the products are only poorly miscible with ionic liquid, and separate in settler. The process shows 70-80% conversion with 90-95% selectivity (Freemantle, 1998). 

Ionic liquids have been used in industrial processes for more than a decade and their applications continue to expand. For instance, extractive distillation and liquid-liquid extraction with ionic liquids as separating agent is a novel method for separation of ethanol-... 

The combination of ionic liquids with supercritical carbon dioxide is an attractive approach, as these solvents present complementary properties (volatility, polarity scale.). Compressed CO2 dissolves quite well in ionic liquid, but ionic liquids do not dissolve in CO2. It decreases the viscosity of ionic liquids, thus facilitating mass transfer during catalysis. The separation of the products in solvent-free form can be effective and the CO2 can be recycled by recompressing it back into the reactor. Continuous flow catalytic systems based on the combination of these two solvents have been reported [19]. This concept is developed in more detail in Section 5.4. 

A similar catalytic dimerization system has been investigated [40] in a continuous flow loop reactor in order to study the stability of the ionic liquid solution. The catalyst used is the organometallic nickel(II) complex (Hcod)Ni(hfacac) (Hcod = cyclooct-4-ene-l-yl and hfacac = l,l,l,5,5,5-hexafluoro-2,4-pentanedionato-0,0 ), and the ionic liquid is an acidic chloroaluminate based on the acidic mixture of 1-butyl-4-methylpyridinium chloride and aluminium chloride. No alkylaluminium is added, but an organic Lewis base is added to buffer the acidity of the medium. The ionic catalyst solution is introduced into the reactor loop at the beginning of the reaction and the loop is filled with the reactants (total volume 160 mL). The feed enters continuously into the loop and the products are continuously separated in a settler. The overall activity is 18,000 (TON). The selectivity to dimers is in the 98 % range and the selectivity to linear octenes is 52 %. 

BP Chemicals studied the use of chloroaluminates as acidic catalysts and solvents for aromatic hydrocarbon allcylation [41]. At present, the existing AICI3 technology (based on red oil catalyst) is still used industrially, but continues to suffer from poor catalyst separation and recycling [42]. The aim of the work was to evaluate the AlCl3-based ionic liquids, with the emphasis placed on the development of a clean... 

During the continuous reaction, alkene, CO, H2, and CO2 were separately fed into the reactor containing the ionic liquid catalyst solution. The products and uncon-... 

These alternative processes can be divided into two main categories, those that involve insoluble (Chapter 3) or soluble (Chapter 4) supports coupled with continuous flow operation or filtration on the macro - nano scale, and those in which the catalyst is immobilised in a separate phase from the product. These chapters are introduced by a discussion of aqueous biphasic systems (Chapter 5), which have already been commercialised. Other chapters then discuss newer approaches involving fluorous solvents (Chapter 6), ionic liquids (Chapter 7) and supercritical fluids (Chapter 8). 

During a 33 h continuous hydroformylation run using this set-up, no catalyst decomposition was observed and Rh leaching into the scC02/product stream was less than 1 ppm. The selectivity for the linear nonanal was found to be stable over the reaction time with n/iso = 3.1. During the continuous reaction, alkene, CO, H2 and C02 were separately fed into the reactor containing the ionic liquid catalyst solution. Products and unconverted feedstock dissolved in SCCO2 were removed from the ionic liquid. After decompression the liquid product was collected and analysed. 

A wide variety of new approaches to the problem of product separation in homogeneous catalysis has been discussed in the preceding chapters. Few of the new approaches has so far been commercialised, with the exceptions of a the use of aqueous biphasic systems for propene hydroformylation (Chapter 5) and the use of a phosphonium based ionic liquid for the Lewis acid catalysed isomerisation of butadiene monoxide to dihydrofuran (see Equation 9.1). This process has been operated by Eastman for the last 8 years without any loss or replenishment of ionic liquid [1], It has the advantage that the product is sufficiently volatile to be distilled from the reactor at the reaction temperature so the process can be run continuously with built in product catalyst separation. Production of lower volatility products by such a process would be more problematic. A side reaction leads to the conversion of butadiene oxide to high molecular weight oligomers. The ionic liquid has been designed to facilitate their separation from the catalyst (see Section 9.7)... 

The resulting complex remained dissolved in the biphasic catalytic system. The 4-vinyl-l-cyclohexene product, obtained with 100% selectivity in [BMIM]PF6, was continuously separated from the reaction mixture by decantation, allowing the reuse of the remaining catalyst solution. The 1,3-butadiene conversion in the biphasic system was higher than that observed in homogeneous systems. Because the unconjugated product has a lower solubility in the ionic liquids than the conjugated butadiene feed, continuous separation of product contributes to the increased reaction rate in the ionic liquid. 

The use of ionic liquids in most applications is stiU in development. The chemical industry in Europe is showing increasing interest in them, particularly for olefin dimerizations and Friedel-Crafts reactions. A two-phase loop reactor has been designed for large-scale preparations which allows for continuous reaction, separation of the product, and recycling of the ionic liquid (Chauvin and Helene, 1995). 

The continuous reaction system could be combined with solid acid-catalyzed in situ racemization of the slow-reacting alcohol enantiomer [149]. The racemiza-tion catalyst and the lipase (Novozym 435) were coated with ionic liquid and kept physically separate in the reaction vessel. Another variation on this theme, which has yet to be used in combination with biocatalysis, involves the use of scC02 as an anti-solvent in a pressure-dependent miscibility switch [150]. 

Reetz, M.T., W. Wiesenhofer, G. Francio and W. Leitner, Continuous Flow Enzymatic Kinetic Resolution and Enantiomer Separation Using Ionic Liquid/Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Media, Advanced Synthesis Catalysis, 345, 1221-1228 (2003). 

An analogous technology commercialized by IFP, Paris, is their continuous, chloroaluminate ionic liquid dimerization of //-butene to isooctane, promoted by a Ziegler-Natta-type homogeneous catalyst. The poorly miscible isooctane product is readily separated. 

Nevertheless, the use of ILs in their liquid form presents some inconveniences in an industrial continuous system. Immobilising these ILs on inert supports on the other hand brings many advantages for the system, e.g. the easier separation of the catalyst from the reaction media and the possible utilisation of the catalyst in a continuous system. The evaluation of the catalytic properties of acidic ionic liquids, immobilised on known supports, and research of the possible advantages of these materials was the driving force of this work. 

Turnover frequencies could be further increased (reaction rates as high as 7,500 mol mor lf1) if LiCl was added instead of an organic base, however at a pronounced cost to the selectivity. While a temperature of 50°C is required in toluene to activate the catalyst, complex 40 exhibits activity already at -10°C in the ionic liquid. This indicates that the in situ generation of the catalyst, which is believed to require the formation of a Ni-hydride complex, proceeds more efficiently in the ionic liquid. On the other hand, the use of aluminiumalkyles as the proton scavenger led to poor results and the catalyst decomposed rapidly at ambient temperature. The catalyst stability was sufficient at low temperature, -10°C, but the linear product was formed with only 12% selectivity under these conditions. The biphasic nature of the system allows for easy product separation and catalyst recycling. Accordingly, the performance was also tested in a continuous mode and catalytic activity was maintained for at least three hours.1 71 After that time,... 

---