From tandem to catalysis - organic solvent nanofiltration for catalyst separation in the homogeneously W-catalyzed oxidative cleavage of renewable methyl 9,10-dihydroxystearate

authored by

Johanna Vondran, Marc Peters, Alexander Schnettger, Christian Sichelschmidt, Thomas Seidensticker

Abstract

Feasibility of oxidative cleavage of methyl oleate in a homogeneous reaction, facilitating the subsequent recovery of the catalyst from a single phase, is a challenge. Using the high molecular catalyst phosphotungstic acid (2880 Da) as an affordable catalyst offers potential for membrane separation. To gain insight into side-reactions, the intermediate methyl 9,10-dihydroxystearate was first applied as a model substrate. Thus, the stability of the intermediate methyl 9,10-epoxystearate and the vicinal diol was significantly improved under reaction conditions. Oxidative cleavage of the vicinal diol as a stable intermediate is very promising reaching an overall selectivity of 90% and a selectivity towards the cleavage carboxylic acids of 80%, considering dilution and acidity as the most important parameters. Retention of the catalyst via organic solvent nanofiltration was investigated and we retained 94% of the catalyst in the monophasic system as the first step towards a process concept for a product purification or catalyst recycling strategy.

External Organisation(s)

TU Dortmund University

Type

Article

Journal

Catalysis Science and Technology

Volume

12

Pages

3622-3633

No. of pages

12

ISSN

2044-4753

Publication date

25.04.2022

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Catalysis

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 7 - Affordable and Clean Energy

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1039/d1cy02317a (Access: Open)