A recently developed, highly selective, CuSiO2 catalyst for the hydrogenation of unsaturated hydrocarbon contaminants in C2 and C3 alkene streams has been employed to remove alkynes from an industrial C4 cracker stream. At a temperature of 320°C and with approximately equal concentrations of H2 and C4 feed effectively all the contaminating alkynes and all the butadienes were hydrogenated selectively to butenes. No further hydrogenation of butenes to butanes was detected. The purified C4-stream was successfully employed in a butene dimerization reaction catalyzed by a homogeneous, Ziegler-type nickel catalyst system [Ni (dithioacetylacetonato) (PnBu3) Cl + diethylaluminiumchloride]. Prior to selective hydrogenation, alkynes present in the C4 stream had poisoned the nickel catalyst. After removing the contaminants dimerization proceeded with an activity (1480 turnovers/h) and product distribution in line with that observed using pure 1-butene feeds. © 1995 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Research Division:	Chemical Sciences
Research Group:	Physical chemistry
Research Field:	Catalysis and mechanisms of reactions
Objective Division:	Manufacturing
Objective Group:	Industrial chemicals and related products
Objective Field:	Industrial chemicals and related products not elsewhere classified
UTAS Author:	Setiawan, I (Mr Iwan Setiawan)
UTAS Author:	Cavell, KJ (Professor Kingsley Cavell)
ID Code:	5893
Year Published:	1995
Web of Science® Times Cited:	11
Deposited By:	Chemistry
Deposited On:	1995-08-01
Last Modified:	2011-08-25
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