One‐Step Production of 1,3‐Butadiene from 2,3‐Butanediol Dehydration

Abstract

We report the direct production of 1,3-butadiene from the dehydration of 2,3-butandiol by using alumina as catalyst. Under optimized kinetic reaction conditions, the production of methyl ethyl ketone and isobutyraldehyde, formed via the pinacol-pinacolone rearrangement, was markedly reduced and almost 80 % selectivity to 1,3-butadiene and 1,3-butadiene could be achieved. The presence of water plays a critical role in the inhibition of oligomerization. The amphoteric nature of γ-Al2 O3 was identified as important and this contributed to the improved catalytic selectivity when compared with other acidic catalysts.

Tuning the Selectivity: Study of Solvent‐Free Acid‐Mediated Pinacolic‐Pinacolone Rearrangement under Microwave Irradiation

“…As the acidity of the medium is reported as essential to run the pinacolic‐pinacolone rearrangement, solid organic and inorganic acids were first screened (Table ). Hydrobenzoin ( 1 a ) was chosen as model substrate (Scheme ).…”

Bio-Based Solvents and Gasoline Components from Renewable 2,3-Butanediol and 1,2-Propanediol: Synthesis and Characterization

“…Hence, the noted compounds are of particular interest as renewable feedstocks for the production of chemicals. The majority of studies on 2,3-BD conversion are dedicated to its dehydrative conversion that yields methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) and isobutyraldehyde [9][10][11][12], 3-butene-2-ol [10,[13][14][15], butenes [16][17][18] and 1,3-butadiene [19][20][21]. Some 2,3-BD derivatives have been previously considered as potential motor fuel components and organic solvents.…”

Vapor-phase catalytic dehydration of 2,3-butanediol to 3-buten-2-ol over ZrO2 modified with alkaline earth metal oxides

“…In the dehydration of 2,3-BDO, 2-butanone (MEK) can be produced easily in acidic aqueous solution [8,9], over several acid solid catalysts such as bentonite [7], alumina [10,11], silica-alumina [11], heteropoly acids [12], and zeolites [13][14][15][16][17][18]. As described in Scheme 1, the hydroxyl group on the 2-position of 2,3-BDO can be easily captured by a proton or an acidic site, and dissociated.…”

“…However, when combining the two types of acid sites together, heavy products increased rapidly [18]. It has been also observed that high carbon balance and low coke formation can be obtained via diluting the reactant 2,3-BDO with an appropriate amount of water [10].…”

“…1,3-Butadiene (BD) can be also produced from 2,3-BDO together with MEK over acid catalysts such as TiO 2 and γ-Al 2 O 3 [10,19]. This is a rare case: both hydroxyl groups of 2,3-BDO must be captured by acid sites, and then dissociated simultaneously or eliminated step by step.…”