Butanal → Butanal

Participants

Reaction Steps

The processes according to the invention may be carried out by passing the aldehyde and ketone reactant mixture, and the aldol catalyst solution, through a stationary bed of pelleted or supported hydrogenation catalysts, enclosed in a tubular reactor. This is typical of continuous fixed-bed plug-flow reactor processes, where the reactants are continually consumed as they flow down the length of the reactor. However, as seen in Example 2 (Comparative), when this continuous plug-flow fixed-bed concept is applied to the cross-aldol condensation of acetone and n-butyraldehyde, the selectivity of n-butyraldehyde to methyl amyl ketone is very low, only 38%. The main-by-product, 2-ethylhexaldehyde, the result of the self-aldol condensation of n-butyraldehyde, cannot be easily separated from the methyl amyl ketone by distillation.

Provenance & Evidence