Hydrogenation of a hydroformylated naphtha model (mixture of specific aldehydes) catalysed by Ru/TPPTS complex in aqueous media Original Research Article

Aqueous biphasic hydrogenation of a mixture of 2-methylvaleraldehyde, 2-ethylbutyraldehyde, hexanal, heptaldehyde, 2-phenylpropionaldehyde and hydrocinnamaldehyde, which are all met in a hydroformylated naphtha (the feedstock of gasoline production) in high yield (mol%) according to the literature, was carried out with ruthenium complex containing the water-soluble ligand TPPTS (TPPTS = P[m-C6H4SO3Na]3, trisodium salt of m-trisulfonated triphenyl phosphine). Ru/TPPTS catalytic system was generated in situ by direct addition of RuCl3·xH2O catalyst precursor to TPPTS in aqueous media; and appears to have high activity under mild conditions (80 °C, 20 bar) in the hydrogenation of the above hydroformylated naphtha model to the production of the corresponding alcohols. Thus, the aqueous biphasic hydrogenation of a hydroformylated fuel would upgrade the combustion properties of the ultimate fuel, while at the same time the whole process would be characterised as environmentally friendly. The effect of the reaction pressure, temperature and time, as well as the influence of the organic solvent, the agitation speed, the TPPTS/Ru and aldehydes/Ru molar ratios were investigated.