Oxidation of n-butane

The oxidation of n-butane represents a good example illustrating the effect of a catalyst on the selectivity for a certain product. The noncatalytic oxidation of n-butane is nonselective and produces a mixture of oxygenated compounds including formaldehyde, acetic acid, acetone, and alcohols. Typical weight % yields when n-butane is oxidized in the vapor phase at a temperature range of 360-450°C and approximately 7 atmospheres are formaldehyde 33%, acetaldehyde 31%, methanol 20%, acetone 4%, and mixed solvents 12%. 

On the other hand, the catalytic oxidation of a n-butane, using either cobalt or manganese acetate, produces acetic acid at 75-80% yield. Byproducts of commercial value are obtained in variable amounts. In the Celanese process, the oxidation reaction is performed at a temperature range of 150-225°C and a pressure of approximately 55 atmospheres.  

The main by-products are formic acid, ethanol, methanol, acetaldehyde, acetone, and methylethyl ketone (MEK). When manganese acetate is used as a catalyst, more formic acid (=25%) is obtained at the expense of acetic acid. 

Catalytic oxidation of n-butane at 490° over a cerium chloride, Co-Mo oxide catalyst produces maleic anyhydride  

A new process for the partial oxidation of n-butane to maleic anhydride was developed by DuPont. The important feature of this process is the use of a circulating fluidized bed-reactor. Solids flux in the rizer-reactor is high and the superficial gas velocities are also high, which encounters short residence times usually in seconds. The developed catalyst for this process is based on vanadium phosphorous oxides 

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Light naphtha containing hydrocarbons in the C5-C7 range is the preferred feedstock in Europe for producing acetic acid by oxidation. Similar to the catalytic oxidation of n-butane, the oxidation of light naphtha is performed at approximately the same temperature and pressure ranges (170-200°C and =50 atmospheres) in the presence of manganese acetate catalyst. The yield of acetic acid is approximately 40 wt%. 

Currently, the major route for obtaining acetic acid (ethanoic acid) is the carbonylation of methanol (Chapter 5). It may also be produced by the catalyzed oxidation of n-butane (Chapter 6). 

The oxidation of n-butanal by CUCI2 in dimethylformamide showed simple second-order kinetics in the presence of lithium chloride . At 83 °C, 2 s 2x10 1.mole". sec". a-Monohalogenation occurs in 97% yield. Cu(Il)-catalysed enolisation followed by ligand-transfer is proposed. a-Halogenation of acetone is accomplished by CUCI2, viz. 

Chen, X.-W. Zhu, Z. Haevecker, M. Su, D.S. Schlogl, R., Carbon nanotube-induced preparation of vanadium oxide nanorods Application as a catalyst for the partial oxidation of n-butane. Materials Res. Bull. 2007,42 354-361. 

Vanadium phosphorus oxides (VPO) are commercially used as catalysts for the s5mthesis of maleic anhydride from the partial oxidation of n-butane. The phase constitution and the morphology of the catalyst are found to be dependent on the preparation routes and the applied solvent [78]. Recently, a method to prepare VPO catalysts in aqueous solution at elevated temperature was reported [79]. In addition to the linear relationship between specific activity and surface area, a small group of catalysts exhibit enhanced activity, which could be due to the combination of a higher proportion of V phases in the bulk of vanadyl pyrophosphate (V0)2P207 catalyst [79, 80]. With high relevance to the catalytic properties, the microstructure characterisation of VPO therefore is of great importance. 

Cox, R.A., Patrick, K.F., and Chant, S.A. Mechanism of atmospheric photooxidation of organic compounds. Reactions of alkoxy radicals in oxidation of n-butane and simple ketones, Environ. Sci Technol, 15(5) 587-592,1981. 

Methyl ethyl ketone is made mostly by the dehydrogenation of 5ec-butyl alcohol. A small amount is isolated as a by-product in acetic acid production by the oxidation of n-butane. 

Active Crystal Face of Vanadyl Pyrophosphate for Selective Oxidation of n-Butane... 

X-ray powder diffraction patterns, 283 Vanadyl pyrophosphate, active crystal face for selective oxidation of n-butane, 156-166 (VO),Pp,... 

Acetic Acid. Although at the time of this writing Monsanto s Rh-catalyzed methanol carbonylation (see Section 7.2.4) is the predominant process in the manufacture of acetic acid, providing about 95% of the world s production, some acetic acid is still produced by the air oxidation of n-butane or light naphtha. n-Butane is used mainly in the United States, whereas light naphtha fractions from petroleum refining are the main feedstock in Europe. 

Oxidation of n-butane and butenes requires higher reaction temperatures (400-480°C). Since more water is produced in this reaction, most of the product is recovered in the form of maleic acid. The currently best process is the Alma (Alusuisse) process.1015-1018 Its main features are a fluidized-bed reactor and an anhydrous product recovery. Because of the better temperature control, a lower air hydrocarbon ratio can be employed (4 mol% of n-butane). Instead of absorption in water, maleic anhydride is recovered from the reactor effluent gas by a high-boiling organic... 

D. L. Trimm Dr. Mayo has suggested that the formation of epoxides via alkenes may well be important and that, in particular, most of the 2,3-dimethyloxiran formed during the oxidation of n-butane is probably... 

Diacetyl (DA) is used as a flavour enhancer in the food industry and is currently manufactured from methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) in homogeneous systems via an oxime intermediate (ref.1). In principle, DA can also be manufactured by the selective oxidation of MEK and several reports have appeared in the literature which apply heterogeneous catalysts to this task (refs. 2-4). A number of reports have specified the importance of basic or weakly acidic sites on the catalyst surface for a selectively catalysed reaction and high selectivities to DA at moderate conversions of MEK have been reported for catalysts based on C03O4 as a pure oxide and with basic oxides added conversely scission reactions have been associated with acidic oxide additives (refs. 2-4). Other approaches to this problem have included the application of vanadium phosphorus oxide (VPO) catalysts. Ai (ref. 5) has shown that these catalysts also catalyse the selective oxidation of MEK to DA. Indeed this catalyst system, used commercially for the selective oxidation of n-butane to maleic anhydride (ref.6), possesses many of the desired functionalities for DA formation from MEK, namely the ability to selectively activate methylene C-H bonds without excessive C-C bond scission. 

The photo-oxidation of n-butane has been modelled by ab initio and DFT computational methods, in which the key role of 1- and 2-butoxyl radicals was confirmed.52 These radicals, formed from the reaction of the corresponding butyl radicals with molecular oxygen, account for the formation of the major oxidation products including hydrocarbons, peroxides, aldehydes, and peroxyaldehydes. The differing behaviour of n-pentane and cyclopentane towards autoignition at 873 K has been found to depend on the relative concentrations of resonance-stabilized radicals in the reaction medium.53 The manganese-mediated oxidation of dihydroanthracene to anthracene has been reported via hydrogen atom abstraction.54 The oxidation reactions of hydrocarbon radicals and their OH adducts are reported.55... 

The synthesis of intermediates and monomers from alkanes by means of oxidative processes, in part replacing alkenes and aromatics as the traditional building blocks for the chemical industry [2]. Besides the well-known oxidation of n-butane to maleic anhydride, examples of processes implemented at the industrial level are (i) the direct oxidation of ethane to acetic acid, developed by Sabic (ii) the ammoxidation of propane to acrylonitrile, developed by INEOS (former BP) and by Mitsubishi, and recently announced by Asahi to soon become commercial (iii) the partial oxidation of methane to syngas (a demonstration unit is being built by ENI). Many other reactions are currently being investigated, for example, (i) the... 

The major conventional processes for the production of acetic acid include the carbonylation of methanol (originally developed by Monsanto, and now carried out by several companies, such as Celanese-ACID OPTIMIZATION, BP-CATIVA, etc.), the liquid-phase oxidation of acetaldehyde, still carried out by a few companies, and the liquid-phase oxidation of n-butane and naphtha. More recent developments include the gas-phase oxidation of ethylene, developed by Showa Denko K.K., and the liquid-phase oxidation of butenes, developed by Wacker [2a],... 

The cycle approach for oxidation has been adopted at an industrial level for the Wacker-Chemie process for acetaldehyde production, in which ethylene is first put in contact with the oxidized catalyst solution, containing palladium chloride, and in the second step the solution containing the reduced catalyst is sent to a regeneration reactor containing cupric chloride and inside which also air is fed. The regenerated catalyst solution is returned to the first oxidation stage. Another industrial application is the Lummus process for the anaerobic ammoxidation of o-xylene to o-phthaloni-trile [68]. Du Pont has developed the oxidation of n-butane to maleic anhydride catalyzed by V/P/O, in a CFBR reactor, and built a demonstration unit in Spain [69] however, a few years ago the plant was shut down, due to the bad economics. 

Y. Ye, L. Rikho-Struckmann, B. Munder, et al., Feasibility of an electro-chemical membrane reactor for partial oxidation of n-butane to maleic anhydride. 

Carreon MA, Guliants W. Chapter 6 selective oxidation of n-butane over vanadium-phosphorous oxide. Nanostructured Catalysts Selective Oxidations The Royal Society of Chemistry 2011. p. 141-168. 

In the past, acetic acid was produced by aerobic oxidation of n-butane (and also of light naphtha, which is mainly a mixture of liquid -alkanes up to C9H2o). The process catalyzed by cobalt(II) acetate, closely resembled the one-step... 

FIGURE 1 The selective oxidation of n-butane to maleic anhydride catalyzed by vanadium phosphate. 

FIGURE 26 Relationship between catalyst activity and surface area for standard vanadium phosphate catalysts for the oxidation of n-butane. Reproduced with permission from Ref. (33). Copyright 1997 Elsevier. 

The selective oxidation of n-butane to give maleic anhydride (MA) catalyzed by vanadium phosphorus oxides is an important commercial process (99). MA is subsequently used in catalytic processes to make tetrahydrofurans and agricultural chemicals. The active phase in the selective butane oxidation catalyst is identified as vanadyl pyrophosphate, (VO)2P207, referred to as VPO. The three-dimensional structure of orthorhombic VPO, consisting of vanadyl octahedra and phosphate tetrahedra, is shown in Fig. 17, with a = 1.6594 nm, b = 0.776 nm, and c = 0.958 nm (100), with (010) as the active plane (99). Conventional crystallographic notations of round brackets (), and triangular point brackets (), are used to denote a crystal plane and crystallographic directions in the VPO structure, respectively. The latter refers to symmetrically equivalent directions present in a crystal. 

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