Selective Metathesis of α-Olefins from Bio-Sourced Fischer–Tropsch Feeds

Mathieu Rouen (1) , Pierre Queval (1) , Etienne Borré (1) , Laura Falivene (2) , Albert Poater (3, 2) , Mikaël Berthod (4) , François Hugues (4) , Luigi Cavallo (2) , Olivier Baslé (1) , Hélène Olivier-Bourbigou (4) , Marc Mauduit (1)

1 ISCR - Institut des Sciences Chimiques de Rennes
2 KAUST - King Abdullah University of Science and Technology
3 Dept Quim
4 IFPEN - IFP Energies nouvelles

The search for a low-cost process for the valorization of linear α-olefins combining high productivity and high selectivity is a longstanding goal for chemists. Herein, we report a soluble ruthenium olefin metathesis catalyst that performs the conversion of linear α-olefins to longer internal linear olefins with high selectivity (>99%) under neat conditions at low loadings (50 ppm) and without the need of expensive additives. This robust catalytic process allowed us to efficiently and selectively re-equilibrate the naphtha fraction (C5–C8) of a Fischer–Tropsch feed derived from non-petroleum resources to a higher-value product range (C9–C14), useful as detergent and plasticizer precursors.

Keywords: Fischer−Tropsch feeds; isomerization; olefin metathesis; ruthenium; selectivity; unsymmetrical NHC

Domains: Chemical Sciences

Mathieu Rouen, Pierre Queval, Etienne Borré, Laura Falivene, Albert Poater, et al.. Selective Metathesis of α-Olefins from Bio-Sourced Fischer–Tropsch Feeds. ACS Catalysis, 2016, 6 (11), pp.7970-7976. ⟨10.1021/acscatal.6b01428⟩. ⟨hal-01558324⟩