Jens Martin Dreimann

Recycling homogeneous catalysts simply via organic solvent nanofiltration: New ways to efficient catalysis

Organic solvent nanofiltration is a convenient method for the recovery of homogeneous transition metal catalysts. The long chain olefin 1‐dodecene is hydroformylated continuously, and the commercially available catalyst complex is separated efficiently using a commercially available nanofiltration membrane. An advantage of this method is that both reaction and separation take place in a single liquid phase. Only continuous operation shows interactions of reaction and separation in the long run. Low energy demand, high scalability as well as transferability to other reactions make this method promising for new industrial applications.

Continuously Operated Hydroformylation

As described in Chap. 3, hydroformylation is one of the most important applications for homogeneous catalysis. Industrial proven processes like the Ruhrchemie/Rhone-Poulenc-Process (RCh-RP) are based on a fossil feedstock mainly producing the linear n-butanal. The use of an aqueous/organic two-phase system leads on the one hand to high selectivities of C4-aldehydes and on the other hand to a highly efficient recovery of the precious rhodium catalyst complex. This process is not applicable for higher olefins (>C5) due to their low solubility in the aqueous catalyst phase [1].