Isobutene from oxidation

Citral is prepared starting from isobutene and formaldehyde to yield the important C intermediate 3-methylbut-3-enol (29). Pd-cataly2ed isomeri2ation affords 3-methylbut-2-enol (30). The second C unit of citral is derived from oxidation of (30) to yield 3-methylbut-2-enal (31). Coupling of these two fragments produces the dienol ether (32) and this is followed by an elegant double Cope rearrangement (21) (Fig. 6). 

Extraction of sec-butanol from isobutene Hydrothermal oxidation of organic wastes in water... 

Selective and direct production of isobutene from acetic acid with a binary oxide, through a three stage is illustrated in Fig. 8.13. 

Like propane, n-hutane is mainly obtained from natural gas liquids. It is also a hy-product from different refinery operations. Currently, the major use of n-hutane is to control the vapor pressure of product gasoline. Due to new regulations restricting the vapor pressure of gasolines, this use is expected to he substantially reduced. Surplus n-butane could be isomerized to isobutane, which is currently in high demand for producing isobutene. Isobutene is a precursor for methyl and ethyl tertiary butyl ethers, which are important octane number boosters. Another alternative outlet for surplus n-butane is its oxidation to maleic anhydride. Almost all new maleic anhydride processes are based on butane oxidation. 

The three isomers constituting n-hutenes are 1-hutene, cis-2-hutene, and trans-2-hutene. This gas mixture is usually obtained from the olefinic C4 fraction of catalytic cracking and steam cracking processes after separation of isobutene (Chapter 2). The mixture of isomers may be used directly for reactions that are common for the three isomers and produce the same intermediates and hence the same products. Alternatively, the mixture may be separated into two streams, one constituted of 1-butene and the other of cis-and trans-2-butene mixture. Each stream produces specific chemicals. Approximately 70% of 1-butene is used as a comonomer with ethylene to produce linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE). Another use of 1-butene is for the synthesis of butylene oxide. The rest is used with the 2-butenes to produce other chemicals. n-Butene could also be isomerized to isobutene. ... 

Fig. 3. FT-IR spectra of the adsorbed species arising from the interaction of (a) rerr-butanol and (b) isobutane over a combustion catalyst (MgCr204) at 423 K, and from rerr-butanol (373 K, c), isobutene (300 K, d) and isobutane (380 K, e) on a selective oxidation catalyst.

Although the reaction of a titanium carbene complex with an olefin generally affords the olefin metathesis product, in certain cases the intermediate titanacyclobutane may decompose through reductive elimination to give a cyclopropane. A small amount of the cyclopropane derivative is produced by the reaction of titanocene-methylidene with isobutene or ethene in the presence of triethylamine or THF [8], In order to accelerate the reductive elimination from titanacyclobutane to form the cyclopropane, oxidation with iodine is required (Scheme 14.21) [36], The stereochemistry obtained indicates that this reaction proceeds through the formation of y-iodoalkyltitanium species 46 and 47. A subsequent intramolecular SN2 reaction produces the cyclopropane. 

Very many acidic solids and liquids, immiscible with hydrocarbons, will catalyse the oligomerisation of isobutene at ambient temperatures. Among the more common are syncatalysts prepared from boron fluoride and a protonic substance BH (B = OH, CHsO, C2H50, t-C4H90, CH3C02, etc.) mineral acids natural and synthetic alumino-silicates, (e.g., Fuller s earth, bentonite, attapulgite) and metal oxides containing small quantities of water. 

If the initial intermediate or the original fuel is a large monoolefin, the radicals will abstract H from those carbon atoms that are singly bonded because the CH bond strengths of doubly bonded carbons are large (see Appendix D). Thus, the evidence [12, 32] is building that, during oxidation, all nonaromatic hydrocarbons primarily form ethene and propene (and some butene and isobutene) and that the oxidative attack that eventually leads to CO is almost solely from these small intermediates. Thus the study of ethene oxidation is crucially important for all alkyl hydrocarbons. 

In the oxidation of f-butanol, acetone and isobutene appear [46] as intermediate species. Acetone can arise from two possible sequences. In one,... 

Several metal oxides could be used as acid catalysts, although zeolites and zeo-types are mainly preferred as an alternative to liquid acids (Figure 13.1). This is a consequence of the possibility of tuning the acidity of microporous materials as well as the shape selectivity observed with zeolites that have favored their use in new catalytic processes. However, a solid with similar or higher acid strength than 100% sulfuric acid (the so-called superacid materials) could be preferred in some processes. From these solid catalysts, nation, heteropolyoxometalates, or sulfated metal oxides have been extensively studied in the last ten years (Figure 13.2). Their so-called superacid character has favored their use in a large number of acid reactions alkane isomerization, alkylation of isobutene, or aromatic hydrocarbons with olefins, acylation, nitrations, and so forth. 

In the second scheme, the alkane is transformed to the olefin by oxidehydro-genation, and the outlet stream is sent to the second oxidation reactor without any intermediate separation." Isobutane and isobutene are recycled, together with oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon oxides. Finally, the third scheme differs from the first one in that hydrogen is separated from propane/propylene after the dehydrogenation step, and oxygen is preferably used instead of air in the oxidation reactor." ... 

CO is derived from a variety of feedstocks such as petroleum gas, fuel oil, coal, and biomass. The industrial scale production of PO starts from propylene, which is mainly obtained from crude oil. However, due to the high importance of this compound, many pathways from renewable sources have additionally been developed [54]. PP is converted to PO by either hydrochlorination or oxidation [55]. The use of chlorine leads to large amounts of salts as by-products, therefore oxidation methods are more important, such as the co-oxidation of PP using ethylbenzene or isobutene in the presence of air and a catalyst. However, this process is economically dependent on the market share of these by-products, thus new procedures without significant amounts of other side-products have been developed, such as the HPPO (hydrogen peroxide to propylene oxide) process in which propylene is oxidized with hydrogen peroxide to give PO and water [56, 57] (Fig. 14). 

For many reactions the type of intermediate that is involved may be deduced from a study of a family of reactants. For example, by noting that in allylic oxidation the order of reactivity is isobutene > trans-2-butene > cis-2-butene > 1-butene one may deduce that an allyl radical or cation is an intermediate. For other oxidations, if the reaction rate order is primary > secondary > tertiary, then an anionic intermediate is implicated. However, care must be taken that the formation of the intermediate is involved in the ratedetermining step and that there are no adsorption equilibrium effects. To rule out the latter, the reaction should be carried out at conditions of low coverage. 

Morita et al. [222] compared bismuth molybdate (1/1) with U—Sb oxides (1 2) at 400°C in a continuous flow system. The methacrolein selectivity for U—Sb is significantly higher than in the case of Bi—Mo (see Table 20). These values increase slightly with increasing conversion of isobutene. Isobutene itself retards the oxidation. In contrast to the pro-pene oxidation, addition of steam accelerates the reaction up to a factor 4 with U—Sb and to a smaller degree with Bi—Mo. With the first catalyst, the activation energy decreases from 27 to 18 kcal mol-1 (0.23 atm steam). U—Sb seems to be less stable than Bi—Mo, but steam has a beneficial effect here too (Table 20). 

Infrared spectra of propene and isobutene on different catalysts were measured by Gorokhovatskii [143]. Copper oxide, which converts olefins to butadiene and aldehydes, shows adsorption complexes different from structures on a V2Os—P2Os catalyst which produces maleic acid anhydride. Differences also exist between selective oxidation catalysts and total oxidation catalysts. The latter show carbonate and formate bands, in contrast to selective oxides for which 7r-allylic species are indicated. A difficulty in this type of work is that only a few data are available under catalytic conditions most of them refer to a pre-catalysis situation. Therefore it is not certain that complexes observed are relevant for the catalytic action. 

There is one last experimental result arguing for a high activation energy for internal ft—C—H abstraction. When Steps 11" and 12 compete, epoxidation (Step 11") always seems to be faster than olefin formation (Step 12). This is true in the HC1 catalyzed, chain decomposition of ter -Bu202 which produces isobutylene oxide and negligible isobutene (2) via a peroxyalkyl radical. Similar behavior is observed from the addition of H02 and R02 to olefins, which produce mainly ethers or epoxides at rapid rates (12). Note that although we estimate A12 — 1013 4 sec."1 and An" -— 10115 sec. 1, Step 12 is endothermic by -— 11 to 13 kcal., while Step 11" is exothermic by 10 to 17 kcal. A reasonable estimate for Ei2 is 20 kcal., while En" has an upper limit of 16 kcal., and some data (12) point to a value closer to 10 kcal. 

Figure 1 Examples of industrial processes employing reactive distillation (a) methyl ferf-butyl ether (MTBE) from isobutene and methanol (b) cumene via alkylation of benzene with propylene (c) ethylene glycol via hydration of ethylene oxide.

A different phenomenon has also been detected in tellurium-containing mixtures used in the oxidation of isobutene to methacrolein. The addition of a-St>204 inhibits sintering (35). Te02 appears as a weak acceptor (36). A hypothesis, still to be confirmed, is that the inhibition of sintering has to do with a spillover of oxygen from a-Sb204 to Te02. 

Isobutene is present in refinery streams. Especially C4 fractions from catalytic cracking are used. Such streams consist mainly of n-butenes, isobutene and butadiene, and generally the butadiene is first removed by extraction. For the purpose of MTBE manufacture the amount of C4 (and C3) olefins in catalytic cracking can be enhanced by adding a few percent of the shape-selective, medium-pore zeolite ZSM-5 to the FCC catalyst (see Fig. 2.23), which is based on zeolite Y (large pore). Two routes lead from n-butane to isobutene (see Fig. 2.24) the isomerization/dehydrogenation pathway (upper route) is industrially practised. Finally, isobutene is also industrially obtained by dehydration of f-butyl alcohol, formed in the Halcon process (isobutane/propene to f-butyl alcohol/ propene oxide). The latter process has been mentioned as an alternative for the SMPO process (see Section 2.7). 

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