Freezing Properties of Alkenyl Succinic Anhydrides Derived from Linear Isomerized Olefins

Significance Statement

Alkenyl succinic anhydrides are important specialty chemicals that are used in the paper, oilfield, fuel and polymer industries.  Despite this there is still relatively limited understanding of some of the properties of these materials.

It is widely accepted that Alkenyl succinic anhydrides made from isomerised linear olefins freeze at a lower temperature than their counterparts made with linear α-olefins, though there is no quantitative measure for this.  During the course of our research to optimise the synthesis of Alkenyl succinic anhydrides we found a useful correlation between the freezing temperatures of Alkenyl succinic anhydrides and the degree of isomerisation in the linear olefins used to make them.

In this paper we report a GC analysis of linear olefins that can be carried out on equipment that is commonly used on multi-purpose manufacturing sites.  The olefin isomer distributions measured using this technique show good correlation with the freezing temperatures of both the olefins and the Alkenyl succinic anhydridesmade from them, whether the freezing temperature is measured using differential scanning calorimetry or a simple lab set-up using common lab glassware.

The method described allows the user to predict the freezing properties of an Alkenyl succinic anhydride by simply measuring the GC of the starting olefin.  Importantly, this means that it is possible to set a specification for the degree of isomerisation in the starting olefin that is required to give the desired freezing properties in the Alkenyl succinic anhydride.

The simplicity of the techniques described in this paper mean that they can be easily implemented in a busy manufacturing environment.

Freezing Properties of Alkenyl Succinic Anhydrides Derived from Linear Isomerized Olefins.Advances in Engineering

About the author

Philip B. Sellars is a Research Fellow in Sustainable Materials at WMG, University of Warwick, UK. His research interests include sustainable chemistry, biopolymers, organic synthesis and specialty chemicals, and his current work is on the use of algal biomass as a polymer feedstock. Philip obtained his MChem degree at the University of St Andrews, UK, and his PhD in synthetic organic chemistry at the University of York, UK. He subsequently worked as a researcher on a Knowledge Transfer Partnership project between Pentagon Chemical Specialties Ltd. (Workington, UK) and the Department of Chemical & Process Engineering at the University of Strathclyde, UK, during which time this work was carried out. 

Journal Reference

Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., 2016, 55 (8), pp 2287–2292.

Philip B. Sellars*1, Leo Lue1, Iain S. Burns1, D. Neil Work2

[expand title=”Show Affiliations”]
  1. Department of Chemical & Process Engineering,University of Strathclyde, James Weir Building, 75 Montrose Street, Glasgow G1 1XJ, United Kingdom
  2. Pentagon Fine Chemicals, Lower Road, Halebank, Widnes WA8 8NS,United Kingdom [/expand]

Abstract

Alkenyl succinic anhydrides are important specialty chemicals that are used in the paper, oilfield, and fuel additives industries. In this paper we investigate the link between the physical properties of alkenyl succinic anhydrides and the identities of their linear alkyl olefin precursors. We describe a straightforward GC analysis of olefin isomer distributions and show that these correlate well with the freezing temperatures of the subsequent alkenyl succinic anhydride products. This allows the identification of olefin isomer profiles that are required to give the desired physical properties in the alkenyl succinic anhydrides; it also provides a method to predict the freezing temperatures of alkenyl succinic anhydrides synthesized from a particular supply of olefin.

Copyright © 2016 American Chemical Society

Go To Ind. Eng. Chem. Res.

 

 

Check Also

Computational Insights into High-Pressure Equilibria of Supercritical Gases in Ammonia - Advances in Engineering

Computational Insights into High-Pressure Equilibria of Supercritical Gases in Ammonia