1.4.

2 Hydrogenation process

Hydrogenation is second process from butadiene is converted into 1, 4-

diacetoxybutene-2 by reacting with acetic acid and air [1]. The operation is carry out in a
liquid phase in a continuous and concurrent flow in the fixed-bed reactor [1]. As known,
hydrogenation process is a process to treat with hydrogen to another compound. The
feed hydrogen shall not forever be pure, and it might be diluted with and an inert gas
alike nitrogen or with a saturated hydrocarbon such as methane [1]. The catalysts
utilized for the reaction are the usual hydrogenation catalysts. There are various types of
hydrogenation catalysts like active carbon, silica gel, alumina, bauxite, magnesia,
pumice and the most preferred is active carbon [2].

Figure 1: Hydrogenation operation [3].

Based on hydrogenation process, the product created is 1, 4-acetoxybutane. The

fed of hydrogenator is 1, 4-diacetoxybutene-2 which extracted as bottom product of
distillation column [4]. The hydrogenation catalysts used is nickel catalyst supported on a
carrier [4]. This reaction is usually carried out at a temperature of 40oC to 200oC,
preferably, 50oC to 100oC and under a pressure of atmospheric pressure to 200 kg/cm2
gauge, preferably, 10 to 100 kg/cm2 gauge [2].

Figure 2: Production of tetrahydrofuran from butadiene acetoxylation [4].

Reference

[1] S. Kong, F. Application, P. Data, ( 12 ) United States Patent, 2 (2011) 12–15.

doi:10.1016/j.(73).

[2] V. Barrocas, United States Patent U . S . Patent, 1 (1980) 0–9.

doi:10.1057/9780230607156.

[3] M. Kirschner, Tall oil situation, For. Chem. Rev. 115 (2005) 5–6.
doi:10.1002/14356007.a26.

[4] Dr.N.K. Patel, Tetrahydro Furan, (1992) 1–9.