Selected Examples of Industrial Electroorganic Synthesis

Though hundreds of syntheses have been reported on a laboratory scale (see Swann and Alkire, 1980 Little and Weinberg, 1991), only a small fraction of them have been commercialized, and some are still in the development stage. Several R D organizations in both the private and public sectors in the USA, 

Germany, UK, India, Japan, and Russia have been working on the development of electroorganic processes and have also successfully commercialized a few of them. Table 21.3 provides a partial list of reactions that have been developed on bench, pilot, and commercial scales in different countries. More recent laboratory-scale studies on electrochemical synthesis of certain fine chemicals and natural products are also included in the table. 

1 Nitrobenzene to /7-aminophenol P/C Bayer, Mills Lab. CECRI Jayaraman et al. (1977) 

3 Acrylonitrile to adiponitrile C Monsanto, BASF, Asahi, UCB Danly (1981) Danly and Campbell (1982) 

4 Formaldehyde to ethylene glycol Acetone to pinacol B/P P Electrosynthesis Co. BASF, Bayer Weinberg et al. (1982) 

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