Fractionation step in the technological process on reaction-rectification column of ethylene glycol manufacturing

Features of fractionation of reaction mixture in the synthesis of ethylene glycol by hydration of ethylene oxide in a reaction-rectification column are studied. Adequacy of the mathematical model applied to the process is evidenced. The ethylene glycol purity is shown depending on the process chemistry mainly. Side reaction of polyglycols formation restrict obtaining of high purity ethylene glycol: it can be isolated only as sideway stream in the bottom section of the reaction-rectification column.     

Adsorption of ethane, ethylene, propane, and propylene on a magnesium-based metal-organic framework

Separation of olefin/paraffin is an energy-intensive and difficult separation process in petrochemical industry. Energy-efficient adsorption process is considered as a promising alternative to the traditional cryogenic distillation for separating olefin/paraffin mixtures. In this work, we explored the feasibility of adsorptive separation of olefin/paraffin mixtures using a magnesium-based metal-organic framework, Mg-MOF-74. Adsorption equilibria and kinetics of ethane, ethylene, propane, and propylene on a Mg-MOF-74 adsorbent were determined at 278, 298, and 318 K and pressures up to 100 kPa. A dual-site Sips model was used to correlate the adsorption equilibrium data, and a micropore diffusion model was applied to extract the diffusivities from the adsorption kinetics data. A grand canonical Monte Carlo simulation was conducted to calculate the adsorption isotherms and to elucidate the adsorption mechanisms. The simulation results showed that all four adsorbate molecules are preferentially adsorbed on the open metal sites where each metal site binds one adsorbate molecule. Propylene and propane have a stronger affinity to the Mg-MOF-74 adsorbent than ethane and ethylene because of their significant dipole moments. Adsorption equilibrium selectivity, combined equilibrium and kinetic selectivity, and adsorbent selection parameter for pressure swing adsorption processes were estimated. The relatively high values of adsorption selectivity suggest that it is feasible to separate ethylene/ethane, propylene/propane, and propylene/ethylene pairs in a vacuum swing adsorption process using Mg-MOF-74 as an adsorbent.     

Effects of head group size on the reaction methyl 4‐nitrobenzenesulfonate + Br− in water‐ethylene glycol cetyltrialkylammonium bromide micellar solutions

The reaction methyl 4‐nitrobenzenesulfonate + Br^? has been studied in water‐ethylene glycol cetyltrialkylammonium bromide (alkyl = methyl, ethyl, propyl, and butyl) micellar solutions by changing surfactant concentration as well as the weight percentage of ethylene glycol present in the bulk phase. The pseudophase model was adequate to rationalize quantitatively the micellar kinetic effects. Information about the influence of the head group size on the second‐order rate constant of the process and on the binding equilibrium constant of the organic substrate to the cationic micelles in water–ethylene glycol mixtures was obtained. Kinetic data taken from the literature were compared to those obtained in this work in order to examine the different effects produced by an alcohol that is localized in the bulk phase, such as ethylene glycol, with those caused by an alcohol that distributes between the bulk and micellar pseudophases, such as 1‐butanol. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Chem Kinet 39: 346–352, 2007     

Organolanthanide-catalyzed synthesis of phosphine-terminated polyethylenes

Organolanthanide-mediated hydrophosphination and ethylene polymerization are coupled in a catalytic cycle to produce diphenylphosphine-terminated polyethylenes. The resulting polymers were characterized by 1H, 13C, and 31P NMR, GPC, and DSC and compared spectroscopically to the model compound, 1-eicosyldiphenylphosphine oxide. High activities (107 g polymer/(mol Ln.atm ethylene.h)) and narrow polydispersities were observed in the polymerization/chain transfer process. Polyethylene molecular weights were found to be inversely proportional to diphenylphosphine concentration, supporting a chain transfer mechanism. The present discovery represents the first case in which an electron-rich phosphine functions efficiently as a chain transfer agent in a single-site fn/d0-mediated olefin polymerization process.     

Effect of perchlorate ion within the polypyrrole matrix on the electrooxidation of ethylene glycol in acidic media

The electrooxidation of ethylene glycol was investigated on platinum and perchlorate ions doped polypyroole film electrodes in acidic media. The presence of perchlorate ion was observed by XPS experiments. Optimum experimental conditions were determined. The electrooxidation kinetic of ethylene glycol was studied as a function of ethylene glycol concentration, potential scan limit and scan rate. Results suggest that the doping process has a strong effect on the oxidation reaction.     

乙烯装置裂解炉管焦炭燃烧特性的研究

齐鲁石化公司乙烯厂是我国最先引进计算机控制下蒸汽 空气在线烧焦技术的乙烯厂 ,在线烧焦使其过程自动化程度大大提高 ,裂解炉没有升降温过程 ,延长了裂解炉管的使用年限[1～ 5] 。但裂解气盘管管径较小 ,易于堵塞 ,烧焦时间稍短 ,管壁上的焦炭就燃烧不完全 ,目前在线烧焦时间还需 70ｈ～ 80ｈ。为了进一步缩短烧焦时间 ,节约能源 ,提高炉子运行周期 ,必须对乙烯装置裂解炉管焦炭的微观结构及燃烧过程进行深入研究 ,以提出进一步加快烧焦速度的办法 ,满足工业生产的需要。本研究采用国内某乙烯厂裂解炉管焦炭为实验原料 ,研究了焦炭的微观…     

Activation Energy and Transition State Determination of the Olefin Insertion Process of Metallocene Catalysts Using a Semiempirical Molecular Orbital Calculation

The transition state of the olefin insertion process of metallocene catalysts can be determined by adopting the semiempirical PM3 model. In computational chemistry, the computational methods most employed are the ab initio method and density functional theory, which are very time consuming. The semiempirical molecular orbital method requires much less computational resources than the above methods. However, the accuracy and reliability of the semiempirical molecular orbital method remains to be determined. The PM3 model is the most recently developed the semiempirical molecular orbital method and can also be applied to transition metal calculations. This study is intended to investigate the reliability of computational results determined using semiempirical PM3 model on metallocene catalysts through comparison with published results on the density functional theory (DFT). The saddle point finding procedure is adopted to find the transition state of the ethylene insertion process of metallocene catalysts. Results on the geometry and energy trends of the ethylene insertion process of metallocene catalysts determined using the PM3 model are in good agreement with the DFT results. In addition, the saddle point of the potential energy surface of ethylene insertion is verified in accordance with the eigenvalue of the vibrational frequency spectrum. Correct eigenvalues indicate that the correct saddle point of the potential energy surface of ethylene insertion has been successfully located. Hence, the eigenvalue of the vibrational frequency spectrum is a valuable reference in terms of saddle point justification. Computational results and vibrational frequency spectrum analysis demonstrate that the PM3 model can be used to locate the correct saddle point of the potential energy surface. The results obtained using the PM3 model confirm that the eigenvalue of the transition state lies nearly on the vibrational frequency spectrum. The eigenvalues are also analyzed, providing a valuable reference for further studies of the transition state of olefin insertion of metallocene catalysts. The activation energies for the olefin insertion reaction are also studied for evaluation of the catalyst.     

Combined chemical and phase equilibrium for the hydration of ethylene to ethanol calculated by means of the Peng-Robinson-Stryjek-Vera equation of state and the Wong-Sandler mixing rules

Due to the economics of the ethylene market and the subsidized production of fermentation-based ethanol in some countries, use of the ethylene hydration process to make ethanol has been steadily declining. The economics of this process might improve by combining the reaction and separation in a reactive distillation column, whose conceptual design requires a study of the combined chemical and phase equilibrium (CPE) of the reacting system. In this work, the Peng-Robinson-Stryjek-Vera equation of state was combined with the UNIQUAC activity coefficient model through the Wong-Sandler (WS) mixing rules in order to correlate the available experimental data for the vapor-liquid equilibria (VLE) of the ethylene-water, ethylene-ethanol, and ethanol-water binary systems at 200 °C. The interaction energies of the UNIQUAC model and the binary interaction coefficient of the WS mixing rules were used as the fitting parameters. From the optimum values of these parameters, both the VLE and the combined CPE of the ethylene-water-ethanol ternary system were predicted at 200 °C and various pressures. At this temperature, the catalytic activity of a H-pentasil zeolite has already been reported to exhibit a maximum for ethylene hydration, and also the experimentally measured two-phase region of the ternary system is sufficiently wide. By means of the reactive flash method, the chemical equilibrium compositions of the liquid and vapor phases were determined for several pressures, and the equilibrium conversion and the vapor fraction were calculated as functions of the ethylene to water feed mole ratio. It turns out that the vapor-liquid mixed-phase hydration of ethylene achieves equilibrium conversions much higher than those computed for a vapor-phase reaction that would hypothetically occur at the same conditions of pressure and feed mole ratio. It was found that the reactive phase diagram of the ternary system exhibits a critical point at 200 °C and 155 atm.     

Effect of ethylene glycol on the thermodynamic and micellar properties of Tween 20

The aggregation behaviour of Tween 20 in ethylene glycol-water mixed solvents has been investigated using surface tension, density, static and dynamic light scattering, and fluorescence measurements. Micellar and surface thermodynamics data were obtained from the temperature dependence of critical micelle concentrations in various aqueous mixtures of ethylene glycol. In order to evaluate the influence of the cosolvent, the differences in the Gibbs energies of micellization of Tween 20 between water and binary solvents were determined. This study allowed us to conclude that the ability of ethylene glycol to act as a structure breaker and its interaction with the surfactant hydrophilic group are the controlling factors of the micellization process. From the evaluation of the thermodynamics of adsorption at the solution-air interface, it was determined that the surface activity of the surfactant decreases slightly with increasing concentration of ethylene glycol at a given temperature. Partial specific volume data, obtained by density measurements, indicate that the fraction of solvent molecules interacting with the micelle, via hydrogen bonds, remained roughly constant. The effect of cosolvent on the size and solvation of the aggregates was analysed by means of static and dynamic light scattering measurements. It was found that the aggregation number decreased, whereas the whole micellar solvation increased with the ethylene glycol content. Micellar micropolarity was examined using two different probes, pyrene and 8-anilinonaphthelene-1-sulfonic acid, and was found to increase with ethylene glycol addition, accompanied by an enhanced solvation. Fluorescence polarization measurements found by using coumarin 6 as a hydrophobic probe revealed an increase in the micellar microviscosity. The observed trends in these microenvironmental properties were ascribed to a participation by ethylene glycol in the micellar solvation layer.     

Modeling of Osmotic Pressure of Aqueous Poly(Ethylene Glycol) Solutions Using the Artificial Neural Network and Free Volume Flory Huggins Model

In this work, the modified Flory-Huggins coupled with the free-volume concept and the artificial neural network models were used to obtain the osmotic pressure of aqueous poly(ethylene glycol) solutions. In the artificial neural network, the osmotic pressure of aqueous poly(ethylene glycol) solutions depends on temperature, molecular weight and the mole fractions of poly(ethylene glycol) in aqueous solution. The network topology is optimized and the (3-1-1) architecture is found using optimization of an objective function with batch back propagation (BBP) method for 134 experimental data points. The results obtained from the neural network in obtaining of the osmotic pressure of aqueous poly(ethylene glycol) were compared with those obtained from the free volume Flory-Huggins model (FV-FH). The results showed that the modified Flory-Huggins model and also the artificial neural network can accurately predict the osmotic pressure of aqueous poly(ethylene glycol) solutions but the accuracy of ANN is much better than the modified Flory-Huggins model.     

Safety analysis and risk identification for a tubular reactor using the HAZOP methodology

A model approach to Hazard and Operability (HAZOP) analysis is presented based on the mathematical modeling of a process unit where both the steady-state analysis, including the analysis of the steady states multiplicity and stability, and the dynamic simulation are used. Heterogeneous tubular reactor for the ethylene oxide production from ethylene and oxygen was chosen to identify potential hazards for real system. The computer code DYNHAZ was developed consisting of a process simulator and a generator of the HAZOP algorithm. Presented at the 33rd International Conference of the Slovak Society of Chemical Engineering, Tatranské Matliare, 22–26 May 2006.     

The mechanism of the high-pressure free radical polymerization of ethylene

The reaction path of the free radical polymerization of ethylene is usually considered identical to the polymerization mechanism of other vinyl monomers. Available experimental data on the polymerization of ethylene, however, hardly fitted the well-established path of free radical polymerization. Obviously the mechanism of ethylene polymerization is more complex and not well understood. One reason for this, in our opinion, is insufficient knowledge of the physicochemical state of ethylene under high pressure. A model that described the behavior of ethylene under compression has been proposed. According to the model, and increase in pressure causes the formation of various supermolecular forms of ethylene, each accompanied by transition of the second order. By proposing a stereochemical shape for each supermolecular form calculation of activation volumes for each of these transitions was made. Good agreement was obtained when calculated volumes of activation were compared with corresponding experimental values in the literature.     

Theoretical analysis of the effect of Lewis acid catalysts on reactivity in the Diels-Alder reaction of 2-azabutadiene with ethylene

The catalytic effect of a Lewis acid on the reaction of 2-azabutadiene with ethylene has been analyzed theoretically. It is found that catalytic action favors the electronic transference from ethylene to the diene through the iminic carbon atom leading to an increase in the asynchronicity and a stronger interaction between the diabatic curves corresponding to the transferred configuration and the zero configuration causing a decrease in the activation energy, and an earlier character of the transition structure for the process.     

Modeling Free Radical Ethylene Polymerization with Multifunctional Comonomers in Tubular Reactors: Influence on Microstructural LDPE Properties

Summary: A kinetic model is developed to predict the effect of multi-functional comonomers in the high-pressure polymerization of ethylene in industrial tubular reactors. Two different modified acrylate based comonomers were tested in the simulation for their influence on molecular-weight distribution and branching densities. A comparison of both methods shows their potential to be used in an industrial process.     

Electron correlation and structure dependencies of the second hyperpolarizability of ethylene

We investigated an interesting behavior in electron correlation and structure dependencies of the second hyperpolarizability (γ) of the ethylene model. The γ values of the ethylene model with plain and twisted structures were examined using various ab initio MO methods. γ was found to be largely changed depending on the rotation angle of the CH₂ group in ethylene. The rotation‐angle dependence of γ is remarkably different among Hartree–Fock and higher‐order electron‐correlation results. By applying hyperpolarizability density analysis, it was found that there are negative and positive contributions to γ and that, especially, σ electrons play an important role to determine the rotation‐angle dependence of γ at high‐order electron correlation levels. ©1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Int J Quant Chem 71: 177–183, 1999     

Small-angle x-ray scattering studies of melting

The course of melting of melt-crystallized polyethylene fractions and of a poly(ethylene oxide)-polystyrene-poly(ethylene oxide) triblock copolymer has been followed by small-angle x-ray scattering (SAXS). Changes in the intensity and shape of the SAXS curves indicated that both surface melting and melting over the full crystallite thickness (full-strand melting) take place. Full strand melting is the final, irreversible process. Comparison with an analytical model indicates that in the earlier stages of the irreversible, full-strand process the crystallites melt out randomly throughout the bulk. Later stages may occur by the simultaneous melting of a larger stack of crystallites.     

Vinyl acetate formation by the reaction of ethylene with acetate species on oxygen-covered Pd(111)

The reaction pathway of vinyl acetate synthesis is scrutinized by reacting gas-phase ethylene (at an effective pressure of 1 x 10-4 Torr) with eta2-acetate species (with a coverage of 0.31 +/- 0.02 monolayer) on a Pd(111)-O(2x2) model catalyst surface in ultrahigh vacuum. It is found that the 1414 cm-1 infrared feature due to the symmetric OCO stretching mode of the acetate species decreases in intensity due to reaction with gas-phase ethylene, while temperature-programmed desorption experiments demonstrate that vinyl acetate is formed. The formation of ethylidyne species is detected when almost all of the acetate species have been removed. The experimental removal kinetics are reproduced by a model in which adsorbed acetates react with an ethylene-derived (possibly ethylene or vinyl) species, where ethylene adsorption is blocked by the acetate present on the surface.     

Finite difference modeling of the gas transport process in glassy polymers

Finite difference modeling has been used to predict the results of gas transport experiments for a concentration-dependent diffusion coefficient. Experiments on the transport of CO₂ in poly(ethylene terephthalate) and poly(ethylene naphthalate) had previously shown a difference between the effective diffusion coefficients for absorption and desorption runs of a double-sided experiment, but this effect had not been seen for single-sided experiments. The finite difference calculations show that such results are to be expected, and the parameters included in the models that attempt to describe the diffusion process in glassy polymers, such as the dual-mode model, and which lead to concentration-dependent diffusion coefficients, can be found by fitting the experimental data for the double-sided experiment using finite difference modeling. The dependence of the effective diffusion coefficient on pressure for the single-sided experiment can be correctly predicted using results from the double-sided experiment for an identical sample. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Effect of a second ethylene molecule on the insertion of ethylene in zirconocene catalyst systems: A QM semiempirical study

The PM3(tm) semiempirical method was used to show the effect of a second ethylene molecule in the backside position on the frontside ethylene insertion in the Cp₂Zr ⁿPr⁺ γ‐agostic resting state. The same calculations without a companion second ethylene molecule were performed to compare geometrical parameters, energies, and electrostatic charges. The results obtained show that the geometrical parameters for both cases were identical, but differences in the electrostatic charges were observed. The energy profile presented two barriers, the first corresponding to the alkyl‐chain rotation along the Zr Cα bond and the second relating to the insertion process itself. The presence of a companion second ethylene molecule affected the energetic profile by lowering the energy barrier of the first stage with respect to the process without the companion second ethylene molecule. These results provide some theoretical support to the well‐known trigger effect. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci A: Polym Chem 38: 571–582, 2000     

Theoretical studies on the ene reaction mechanisms of propene and cyclopropene with ethylene and cyclopropene: concerted or stepwise

The potential energy surfaces of the ene reactions of propene and cyclopropene with ethylene and cyclopropene were studied by ab initio molecular orbital (MO) methods. The reaction mechanisms were analyzed by CiLC method on the basis of CASSCF MOs. The concerted and stepwise reaction pathways of the ene reaction of propene with ethylene as the parent reaction were located. The energy barrier of the stepwise process is about 4 kcal/mol lower than that of the concerted one. The other reactions can be found only the stepwise mechanism. Although the endo-type reaction of propene with cyclopropene, where cyclopropene is the enophile, probably occurs through a one-step process, the mechanism is divided into the CC bond formations and the hydrogen migration as a stepwise reaction. The CiLC-IRC analysis of the concerted process of propene with ethylene shows the different patterns of the electronic state variation for the CC bond formation/breaking and the hydrogen migration.