Catalyst compositions for selective dimerization of ethylene

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9919298-B2
Application number	US-201415102768-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 12, 2014
Priority date	Dec 13, 2013
Publication date	Mar 20, 2018
Grant date	Mar 20, 2018

Abstract

A catalyst composition comprises an inert hydrocarbon solvent, having dissolved therein a titanate of the formula Ti(OR) 4 wherein each R is the same or different, and is a hydrocarbon residue, and an organic aluminum compound, wherein a molar ratio of the organic aluminum compound and any alkene present in the catalyst composition is greater than one.

First claim

We claim:

1. A catalyst composition, comprising:
an inert hydrocarbon solvent, having dissolved therein
a titanate of the formula Ti(OR) 4 wherein each R is the same or different, and is a hydrocarbon residue, and
an organic aluminum compound; and

a catalyst modifier selected from a silicate, a silazane, a fluorinated hydrocarbon, or a combination thereof;
wherein a molar ratio of the organic aluminum compound to any alkene present in the catalyst composition is greater than one.

2. The catalyst composition of claim 1 , wherein the titanate is pre-treated with the inert hydrocarbon solvent in the absence of the organic aluminum compound.

3. The catalyst composition of claim 1 , wherein the inert hydrocarbon solvent is an alkane or an aromatic hydrocarbon.

4. The catalyst composition of claim 1 , wherein the ratio of aluminum to titanium in the catalyst composition is about 1:1 to about 40:1.

5. The catalyst composition according to claim 1 , wherein one or more of the following conditions is met:
the content of compounds comprising a carbon chain of more than 20 carbon atoms is less than 0.1 wt. %, based on the total weight of the catalyst composition; or
the content of a polymer comprising 5 or more repeat units is less than 0.1 wt. %, based on the total weight of the catalyst composition.

6. The catalyst composition according to claim 1 , wherein
the titanate is Ti(O-butyl) 4 , Ti(O-n-alkyl) 4 , Ti(O-n-butyl) 4 , or a combination thereof; and
the organic aluminum compound is of the formula Al n R 3n , wherein n is 1 or 2 and each R is the same or different, and is hydrogen, a hydrocarbon residue, or halogen.

7. A process for the preparation of a catalyst composition, comprising:
combining the components of claim 1 .

8. The process according to claim 7 , comprising:
pretreating the titanate, the catalyst modifier, and optionally a catalyst additive with the inert hydrocarbon solvent; and
combining the pre-treated titanate with the organic aluminum compound.

9. The process of claim 7 , wherein not more than 0.1% wt. % of the alkene is present in the catalyst composition during the process.

10. The process of claim 8 , wherein the pre-treating of the titanate comprises dissolving the titanate and the catalyst modifier in the inert hydrocarbon solvent in the absence of the organic aluminum compound.

11. The process of claim 7 , comprising:
combining the organic aluminum compound and the inert hydrocarbon solvent to provide an organic aluminum solution; and
combining the organic aluminum solution with the titanate and the catalyst modifier.

12. A process for the preparation of an α-olefin, comprising
contacting an alkene with the catalyst composition according to claim 1 in a liquid phase and under conditions effective to form the α-olefin.

13. The process of claim 12 , wherein the alkene is ethene and the α-olefin is 1-butene.

14. The process of claim 12 , wherein the contacting is in a homogeneous liquid phase.

15. The process of to claim 12 , wherein the liquid phase comprises the α-olefin.

16. The process of claim 12 , wherein the conditions comprise at least one of
a pressure of about 1 to about 120 bar, or
a temperature of about 30 to about 150° C.

17. The process of claim 12 , further comprising:
reacting the α-olefin to provide the downstream product, wherein the downstream product is a homopolymer or copolymer comprising units derived from the α-olefin.

18. The process according to claim 17 , further comprising shaping the downstream product to provide an article.

Assignees

• Saudi Basic Ind Corp

Inventors

• Schmidt Roland
• Al-Hazmi Mohammed H
• Al-Anazi Mohammed F
• Pradhan Devranjan J

Classifications

• B01J31/0274

  containing silicon (ligands in coordination complexes B01J31/1608) · CPC title

• C08F10/08

  Butenes · CPC title

• B01J2531/004

  Ligands · CPC title

• B01J2531/007

  Promoter-type Additives · CPC title

• B01J31/143

  of aluminium · CPC title