Increasing selectivity of the hydroformylation in a miniplant: Catalyst,solvent, and olefin recycle in two loops

The application of thermomorphic solvent systems offers the combination of homogeneous catalysis in a single phase and catalyst recovery via phase separation. To increase economic feasibility the minimization of waste streams and side reactions is desired. For this, a continuous process for the hydroformylation of 1‐dodecene in the solvent system DMF/n‐decane is shown. While the Rh/Biphephos catalyst is recycled in DMF in a first loop, the n‐decane and remaining olefins are separated from the product via distillation to form the second loop. In this process the need for additional solvent supply and the isomerization reaction of 1‐dodecene is reduced significantly. The reaction toward internal olefins decreases from initially 15 to 3%. The stable hydroformylation process with a yield of the linear hydroformylation product of 55% and l/b‐ratio of 95/5 is shown for 120 h. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 62: 4377–4383, 2016