Calcium Carbide Looping System for Acetaldehyde Manufacturing from Virtually any Carbon Source

Konstantin S Rodygin; Kristina A Lotsman; Valentine P Ananikov

doi:10.1002/cssc.202000760

Calcium Carbide Looping System for Acetaldehyde Manufacturing from Virtually any Carbon Source

ChemSusChem. 2020 Jul 22;13(14):3679-3685. doi: 10.1002/cssc.202000760. Epub 2020 Jun 9.

Authors

Konstantin S Rodygin^{1

2}, Kristina A Lotsman¹, Valentine P Ananikov^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Chemistry, Saint Petersburg State University, Universitetskiy pr. 26, Stary Petergof, 198504, Russia.
² N.D. Zelinsky Institute of Organic Chemistry, Leninsky pr. 47, Moscow, 119991, Russia.

PMID: 32338832
DOI: 10.1002/cssc.202000760

Abstract

A vinylation/devinylation looping system for acetaldehyde manufacturing was evaluated. Vinylation of iso-butanol with calcium carbide under solvent-free conditions was combined with hydrolysis of the resulting iso-butyl vinyl ether under slightly acidic conditions. Acetaldehyde produced by hydrolysis was collected from the reaction mixture by simple distillation, and the remaining alcohol was redirected to the vinylation step. All the inorganic co-reagents can be looped as well, and the full sequence is totally sustainable. A complete acetaldehyde manufacturing cycle was proposed on the basis of the developed procedure. The cycle was fed with calcium carbide and produced the aldehyde as a single product in a total preparative yield of 97 %. No solvents, hydrocarbons, or metal catalysts were needed to maintain the cycle. As calcium carbide in principle can be synthesized from virtually any source of carbon, the developed technology represents an excellent example of biomass and waste conversion into a valuable industrial product.

Keywords: acetaldehyde; atom-economic processes; calcium carbide; solvent-free reactions; sustainable chemistry.