Synthesis of higher carbon ethers from olefins and alcohols: I. Reactions with methanol

Higher carbon ether compounds (HME; hexyl methyl ether and OME; octyl methyl ether) are produced from olefins (C6 olefins: 23DM1B; 2,3-dimethyl-1-butene and 23DM2B; 2,3-dimethyl-2-butene and C8 olefins: 244TM1P; 2,4,4-trimethyl-1-pentene and 244TM2P; 2,4,4-trimethyl-2-pentene) and methanol in the presence of commercially available Amberlyst 15 ion exchange catalyst. Stainless steel batch reactors are used and the experiments are conducted from 333 to 373 K. It appeared that α-olefins are much more reactive to produce the corresponding ether compounds than β-olefins are. Probably due to steric hindrance, the reactivity of C8 olefins seems to be less than that of C6 olefins. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) shows that the amount of catalyst and reaction medium is significant at 2.5% and 1% levels for the production of octyl methyl ether and at 25% and 10% levels for the production of hexyl methyl ether, respectively. The implications of the current results to the design of a continuous process for the preparation of higher carbon ethers from olefins and synthesis gas in a single-step etherification reactor are discussed.