Chemical and Technical Aspects of Hydroformylation of Olefins With Supported Liquid-Phase Rhodium Catalysts

Abstract

Supported liquid-phase catalysts containing RhH(CO)(PPH,), dissolved in PPH, are used in the gas-phase hydroformylation of several olefins. Their activity in the hydroformylation of ethylene, propylene and the butenes is reported.Various physicochemical aspects of the rhodium SLP catalysts, such as the adsorptive withdrawal of the rhodium complexes by the supports, the activity of the rhodium complexes at the gas-liquid interface and the solubility of the reactants and products in the liquid part of the catalysts, are discussed.The results are presented of a bench-scale process study of the hydroformylation of propylene, from which the design parameters of a future plant are calculated.

Supported Liquid Catalysts

“…Since the pioneering studies of Acres et al [27] and Rony [28,29], supported liquidphase (SLP) catalysis has also been investigated using high-boiling organic solvents for continuous gas-phase reactions. In some of these studies, catalyst stabilities of more than 800 h time on stream were attained [33], and even a pre-design of a large-scale SLP plant for propylene hydroformylation has been proposed [43,44]. Hjortkjaer et al [30,31], Strohmeier et al [32], and especially Scholten's group [33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42], published during the late 1970s and 1980s an impressive number of hydroformylation studies using this concept.…”