Olefins Production

The principal olefins for the production of polymers and resins are ethylene and propylene. These are made by cracking larger molecules, which for the most part are paraffins. Two processes are involved -thermal cracking (pyrolysis) and catalytic cracking. Of these two types the former is the dominant process for the production of ethylene and propylene whilst the latter makes a significant contribution to the production of propylene. 

The academic and patent literature of hydrocarbon pyrolysis is very large. An extensive exposition of various aspects of pyrolysis is given by Albright et al to which the reader is referred for greater detail of many aspects of the industrial uses of pyrolysis. This chapter gives the salient features of the chemistry of hydrocarbon pyrolysis as it applies to describing the key points of the technology and economics of production of olefins. 

The distinguishing feature of thermal (free radical) cracking in the gaseous phase and acid catalysed processes is that the former leads to ethylene as a major product. Ethylene is only a minor product in catalytic 

A key technical difference between the two approaches is that thermal cracking of hydrocarbons to ethylene is usually performed at temperatures in excess of 800 C, whereas catalytic processes occur generally below 550°C. 

Unsaturated hydrocarbons are important industrial raw materials in the manufacture of chemicals and polymers. Moreover, they are valuable constituents in high-octane gasoline produced mainly through cracking of larger alkanes, although, as 

---

Furthermore, the major problem of reducing aromatics is focused around gasoline production. Catalytic reforming could decrease in capacity and severity. Catalytic cracking will have to be oriented towards light olefins production. Etherification, alkylation and oligomerization units will undergo capacity increases. 

Similar fragmentations to produce S-cyclodecen-l-ones and 1,6-cyclodecadienes have employed l-tosyloxy-4a-decalols and 5-mesyloxy-l-decalyl boranes as educts. The ringfusing carbon-carbon bond was smoothly cleaved and new n-bonds were thereby formed in the macrocycle (P.S. Wharton, 1965 J.A. Marshall, 1966). The mechanism of these reactions is probably E2, and the positions of the leaving groups determine the stereochemistry of the olefinic product. 

Olefin—Paraffin Separation. The catalytic dehydrogenation of / -paraffins offers a route to the commercial production of linear olefins. Because of limitations imposed by equiUbrium and side reactions, conversion is incomplete. Therefore, to obtain a concentrated olefin product, the olefins must be separated from the reactor effluent (81—85), and the unreacted / -paraffins must be recycled to the catalytic reactor for further conversion. 

The olefin product contains 1.1% of residual / -paraffins. Essentially similar results have been obtained in commercial operations on Cg—C q and C g feedstocks. The desorbents used are generally hydrocarbon mixtures of lower boiling range than the feed components. The concentrated olefin stream may then be used for production of detergent alcohols. 

The reaction has been extended to include carbanions generated from phosphonates. This is often referred to as the Horner-Wittig or Homer-Emmons reaction. The Horner-Emmons reaction has a number of advantages over the conventional Wittig reaction. It occurs with a wider variety of aldehydes and ketones under relatively mild conditions as a result of the higher nucleophilicity of the phosphonate carbanions. The separation of the olefinic product is easier due to the aqueous solubility of the phosphate by-product, and the phosphonates are readily available from the Arbusov reaction. Furthermore, although the reaction itself is not stereospecific, the majority favor the formation of the trans olefin and many produce the trans isomer as the sole product. 

Olefins are produced primarily by thermal cracking of a hydrocarbon feedstock which takes place at low residence time in the presence of steam in the tubes of a furnace. In the United States, natural gas Hquids derived from natural gas processing, primarily ethane [74-84-0] and propane [74-98-6] have been the dominant feedstock for olefins plants, accounting for about 50 to 70% of ethylene production. Most of the remainder has been based on cracking naphtha or gas oil hydrocarbon streams which are derived from cmde oil. Naphtha is a hydrocarbon fraction boiling between 40 and 170°C, whereas the gas oil fraction bods between about 310 and 490°C. These feedstocks, which have been used primarily by producers with refinery affiliations, account for most of the remainder of olefins production. In addition a substantial amount of propylene and a small amount of ethylene ate recovered from waste gases produced in petroleum refineries. 

The direct methane conversion technology, which has received the most research attention, involves the oxidative coupling of methane to produce higher hydrocarbons (qv) such as ethylene (qv). These olefinic products may be upgraded to Hquid fuels via catalytic oligomerization processes. 

Molecular sieves have had increasing use in the dehydration of cracked gases in ethylene plants before low temperature fractionation for olefin production. The Type 3A molecular sieve is size-selective for water molecules and does not co-adsorb the olefin molecules. 

Dehydrogenation of isobutane to isobutylene is highly endothermic and the reactions are conducted at high temperatures (535—650°C) so the fuel consumption is sizeable. Eor the catalytic processes, the product separation section requires a compressor to facHitate the separation of hydrogen, methane, and other light hydrocarbons from-the paraffinic raw material and the olefinic product. An exceHent overview of butylenes is avaHable (81). 

Significant quantities of Cj and C, acetylenes are produced in cracking. They can be converted to olefins and paraffins. For the production of high purity ethylene and propylene, the contained Cj and C3 acetylenes and dienes are catalytically hydrogenated leaving only parts per million of acetylenes in the products. Careful operation is required to selectively hydrogenate the small concentrations of acetylenes only, and not downgrade too much of the wanted olefin products to saturates. 

Other examples of the successful displacement of tosylates are the preparation of 31 -, 16a-,16j - and27- labeled steroids. This displacement reaction fails, however, with certain C-18 and C-19 alcohol derivatives which give mainly O—S instead of C—O bond cleavage. Unsatisfactory results were also obtained with sterically hindered tosylate esters at C-11, C-12 and C-20, which give considerable amounts of olefinic products in addition to O—S bond cleavage. ... 

The anomalous iodoacetamide-fluoride reaction violates this rule, in that a less stable -halonium complex (18) must be involved, which then opens to (19) in the Markownikoff sense. This has been rationalized in the following way estimates of nonbonded destabilizing interactions in the possible products suggest that the actual product (16) is more stable than the alternative 6)5-fluoro-5a-iodo compound, so the reaction may be subject to a measure of thermodynamic control in the final attack of fluoride ion on the iodonium intermediate. To permit this, the a- and -iodonium complexes would have to exist in equilibrium with the original olefin, product formation being determined by a relatively high rate of attack upon the minor proportion of the less stable )9-iodonium ion. 

Some typical examples of this useful transformation are shown in Table 3 [63], These olefinic products can be transformed into l-aryl-3,3,3-trifluoropropynes via further reaction with sodium rerf-butoxide [64],... 

When the nitrogen is part of a ring, as for example in iV-methylpyrolidine 10, the olefinic product resulting from one elimination step still contains the nitrogen as a tertiary amino group. A second quaternization/elimination sequence is then necessary to eliminate the nitrogen function from the molecule as final product a diene is then obtained ... 

Olefin Product Time for reaction with CO (minutes) 20... 

Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), which is a propane-butane mixture. It is mainly used as a fuel or a chemical feedstock. Liquefied petroleum gas is evolving into an important feedstock for olefin production. It has been predicted that the world (LPG) market for chemicals will grow from 23.1 million tons consumed in 1988 to 36.0 million tons by the year 2000. ... 

Butane is primarily used as a fuel gas within the LPG mixture. Like ethane and propane, the main chemical use of butane is as feedstock for steam cracking units for olefin production. Dehydrogenation of n-butane to butenes and to butadiene is an important route for the production of synthetic rubber. n-Butane is also a starting material for acetic acid and maleic anhydride production (Chapter 6). 

The cracking reactions are principally bond breaking, and a substantial amount of energy is needed to drive the reaction toward olefin production. 

Steam cracking reactions are highly endothermic. Increasing temperature favors the formation of olefins, high molecular weight olefins, and aromatics. Optimum temperatures are usually selected to maximize olefin production and minimize formation of carhon deposits. 

Cracking n-hutane is also similar to ethane and propane, hut the yield of ethylene is even lower. It has been noted that cracking either propane or butanes at nearly similar severity produced approximately equal liquid yields. Mixtures of propane and butane LPG are becoming important steam cracker feedstocks for C2-C4 olefin production. It has been forecasted that world LPG markets will grow from 114.7 million metric tons/day in 1988 to 136.9 MMtpd in the year 2000, and the largest portion of growth will be in the chemicals field. 

Liquid feedstocks for olefin production are light naphtha, full range naphtha, reformer raffinate, atmospheric gas oil, vacuum gas oil, residues, and crude oils. The ratio of olefins produced from steam cracking of these feeds depends mainly on the feed type and, to a lesser extent, on the operation variables. For example, steam cracking light naphtha produces about twice the amount of ethylene obtained from steam cracking vacuum gas oil under nearly similar conditions. Liquid feeds are usually... 

In Europe naphtha is the preferred feedstock for the production of synthesis gas, which is used to synthesize methanol and ammonia (Chapter 4). Another important role for naphtha is its use as a feedstock for steam cracking units for light olefins production (Chapter 3). Heavy naphtha, on the other hand, is a major feedstock for catalytic reforming. The product reformate containing a high percentage of Ce-Cg aromatic hydrocarbons is used to make gasoline. Reformates are also extracted to separate the aromatics as intermediates for petrochemicals. 

Mioskowski et al. have demonstrated a route to spirocyclopropanes. As an example, treatment of epoxide 100 with n-BuLi in pentane stereoselectively gave tricyclic alcohol 101, albeit in only 47% yield (Scheme 5.21) [29]. With a related substrate, epoxide 102 stereoselectively gave dicydopropane 103 on treatment with PhLi uniquely, the product was isolable after column chromatography in 74% yield [35]. As was also seen with attempts to perform C-H insertion reactions in a non-transannular sense, one should note that steps were taken to minimize the formation of olefin products, either by the use of a base with low nudeophilicity (LTM P) and/or by slow addition of the base to a dilute solution (10-3 m in the case of 102) of the epoxide. 

Whereas the nucleophilic addition of vinylmagnesium bromide to a-alkoxy aldehydes (12, 16) proceeds with a low to moderate chelation-controlled diastereoselectivity, a remarkably high preference for the opposite stereochemical behavior is found with the jS-silyl phosphorus ylide 1477. Due to the electron-donating 4-methoxyphenyl substituents at the phosphorus atom, as well as the /i-methyldiphenylsilyl group, 14 is an excellent vinylation reagent which does not lead to any Wittig olefination products. 

The absolute stereochemistry at the sulfoxide sulfur atom in some /J-phenylsulfinyl radicals (prepared in situ by treating 2-bromo-3-phenylsulfinylbutanes with tributylstan-nane) controls the stereochemistry (i.e., cis vs. trans) of the olefinic products which are formed104. Implicit in this result is that loss of the sulfinyl group occurs more rapidly than rotation about C-2-C-3 of the intermediate radical105. 

---