Open AccessThe Guerbet Reaction Network – a Ball‐in‐a‐Maze‐Game or: Why Ru‐MACHO‐BH is Poor in Coupling two Ethanol to n‐Butanol
Author(s) -
Ohligschläger Andreas,
Staalduinen Nils,
Cormann Carsten,
Mühlhans Jan,
Wurm Jan,
Liauw Marcel A.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
chemistry ‐ methods
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2628-9725
DOI - 10.1002/cmtd.202000056
Subject(s) - chemistry , catalysis , butanol , 2 butanol , dehydrogenation , reaction rate , acetaldehyde , redox , ethanol , organic chemistry
The Guerbet reaction from two alcohols to a long‐chain alcohol and water requires a redox catalyst and a strong base in homogeneous liquid systems. Especially, the reaction from ethanol to n ‐butanol is a challenging example of the reaction that suffers from low yields and selectivities in comparison with reactions of higher alcohols. The most important side reactions are the polymerization of acetaldehyde to C 6+ ‐components and the saponification of ethyl acetate under consumption of the base. This work pursues the systematic kinetic investigation of the Guerbet reaction network by experiments with isolated subsystems of the network. In‐situ‐infrared spectroscopy is applied to determine time‐resolved concentration profiles. Adapted kinetic models of the single steps are integrated into a microkinetic model of the whole network. The simulation of the reaction network reveals dependencies between temperature, hydrogen pressure, initial concentrations and the yield and selectivity of n ‐butanol. Finally, it is shown that Ru‐MACHO does not lead to high yields in the reaction, because the dehydrogenation to ethyl acetate exhibits a too low activation barrier.