This patent describes the reductive carbonylation reaction between carbon monoxide, methanol and hydrogen to produce ethanol, acetaldehyde and acetic acid in ratios that can be adjusted depending on the which product is more desired. The key advantage that is the focus of this patent is to eliminate the use and/or formation of methyl iodide since iodide is usually used as a catalyst (promoter) for this reductive carbonylation. Methyl iodide is a volatile and toxic product that can be hard to separate from the product mixture and also forms dimethyl ether that can be explosive.
Under the reaction conditions shown in the figure, methyl iodide was non-detectable and dimethyl ether was found at 0.3%.
The iodide source chosen was bis-(methyl triphenyl phosphonium) cobalt tetraiodide and is used at the low levels of 0.2-0.4 mole%. Recycle of this catalyst in its active form was also demonstrated. Sometimes phosphine ligands were used to alter selectivity and space time yield.
This patent includes an extensive experimental program to evaluate and optimize the reaction conditions for selectivity and productivity.
Do you need to develop low-cost high-performance green chemistry? Now contact Marc Halpern of PTC Organics to integrate the best available phase-transfer catalysis technology to improve profit and R&D efficiency.
About Marc Halpern
Dr. Halpern is founder and president of PTC Organics, Inc., the only company dedicated exclusively to developing low-cost high-performance green chemistry processes for the manufacture of organic chemicals using Phase Transfer Catalysis. Dr. Halpern has innovated PTC breakthroughs for pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, petrochemicals, monomers, polymers, flavors & fragrances, dyes & pigments and solvents. Dr. Halpern has provided PTC services on-site at more than 260 industrial process R&D departments in 37 countries and has helped chemical companies save > $200 million. Dr. Halpern co-authored five books including the best-selling “Phase-Transfer Catalysis: Fundamentals, Applications and Industrial Perspectives” and has presented the 2-day course “Practical Phase-Transfer Catalysis” at 50 locations in the US, Europe and Asia.
Dr. Halpern founded the journal “Industrial Phase-Transfer Catalysis” and “The PTC Tip of the Month” enjoyed by 2,100 qualified subscribers, now beyond 130 issues. In 2014, Dr. Halpern is celebrating his 30th year in the chemical industry, including serving as a process chemist at Dow Chemical, a supervisor of process chemistry at ICI, Director of R&D at Sybron Chemicals and founder and president of PTC Organics Inc. (15 years) and PTC Communications Inc. (20 years). Dr. Halpern also co-founded PTC Interface Inc. in 1989 and PTC Value Recovery Inc. in 1999. His academic breakthroughs include the PTC pKa Guidelines, the q-value for quat accessibility and he has achieved industrial PTC breakthroughs for a dozen strong base reactions as well as esterifications, transesterifications, epoxidations and chloromethylations plus contributed to more than 100 other industrial PTC process development projects.
Dr. Halpern has dedicated his adult life to his family and to phase-transfer catalysis (in that order!).
