Classifications

• • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
  • C07—ORGANIC CHEMISTRY
  • C07D—HETEROCYCLIC COMPOUNDS
  • C07D493/00—Heterocyclic compounds containing oxygen atoms as the only ring hetero atoms in the condensed system
  • C07D493/02—Heterocyclic compounds containing oxygen atoms as the only ring hetero atoms in the condensed system in which the condensed system contains two hetero rings
  • C07D493/04—Ortho-condensed systems

Definitions

• the present Invention is concerned with processes for making dehydration products from sugar alcohols, and more particularly but without limitation : to acid-catalyzed processes for making Isohexides, such as Isosorbide, from hexito!s such as sorbitol or from rnonoanhydrohexitois such as 1.4-sorbitan.
• Isohexides such as Isosorbide
• hexito!s such as sorbitol
• rnonoanhydrohexitois such as 1.4-sorbitan.
• a variety of acid catalysts have been evaluated for use in carrying out the dehydration of sorbitol through certain monoanhvdrohexitoi intermediates (e.g., 1 ,4-sorbitan) to Isosorbide.
• inorganic acids such as H2SO4, H3PO4, and NCI are readily obtained, inexpensive materials but are difficult to regenerate.
• solid resin catalysts have been tried. Unfortunately, In the presence of wafer and at the temperatures required for carrying out the dehydration, very few solid acids can demonstrate the activity and stability needed to begin to contemplate a commercially viable process.
• US Pat. No, 7,772,412 io Holladay et al. describes a process for making isosorbide wherein sorbitol Is fed to a reactor containing a dehydration catalyst and a hydrogenation co-catalyst, with hydrogen being supplied countercurrentiy to the reactor for removing water as it is formed and for "reducing or eliminating ...o!igomeric or polymeric material in the dehydration product " , to which undesirable color formation had been attributed.
• Suitable dehydration catalysts include the mineral acid catalysts, solid acid catalysts such as the heteropolyaeids, mesoporous silicas, acid clays, sulfated zirconia, molecular sieve materials, cation exchange resins and zeolites, and combinations of any of these.
• the hydrogenation catalyst is described as typically being a supported metal or multi-metal catalyst. Palladium in particular is described as especially preferable for the metal, with platinum, nickel, cobalt, ruthenium, rhenium, rhodium, Iridium and iron also being listed.
• the dehydration process is conducted rapidly and with rapid cooling of the dehydration products prior to any separation of the residual sugar alcoho s) from the dehydration products in the overall product mixture, in the manner prescribed for the dehydration of aqueous sugar solutions in WO 2013/106136 to Sanborn et al.
• the present invention in a first aspect concerns a process for the acid-catalyzed dehydration of a sugar alcohol wherein the catalyst comprises a water-tolerant Lewis acid, in particular embodiments, the catalyst comprises a homogeneous water-tolerant Lewis acid, especially a homogeneous Lewis acid selected from the group consisting of bismuth (ill) irifiate, gallium (ill) inflate, scandium (IM) inflate, aluminum inflate, fin (II) inflate and Indium (111) triflate.
• a homogeneous water-tolerant Lewis acid especially a homogeneous Lewis acid selected from the group consisting of bismuth (ill) irifiate, gallium (ill) inflate, scandium (IM) inflate, aluminum inflate, fin (II) inflate and Indium (111) triflate.
• Such catalysts are effective for dehydrating both of sorbitol and the 1 ,4-sorbiian dehydration precursor of Isosorblde, and bismuth (III) triflate particularly is beneficial for dehydrating mannitoi to iso annide , so that in a second, more particular aspect the present invention concerns an improved process for making an isohexide from a corresponding hexltol.
• a preferred process according to the present invention for dehydrating sorbitol involves mixing sorbitol with from 0.005 mo! percent and greater of a water-tolerant Lewis acid, heating to at least 140 degrees Celsius, and carrying out the acid-catalyzed dehydration of sorbitol isotherma!ly for an hour or longer under a reduced pressure to continuously remove water from the reaction.
• the water-tolerant Lewis aoid is preferably one or more of bismuth (III) trifiate, gallium (HI) trifiate, scandium (ill) trifiate, aluminum trifiate, tin (II) trifiate and indium (ill) trifiate, and while yields of isosorbide and the 1 ,4-sorbitan precursor of isosorbide obtained from these catalysts can be seen from the examples below to vary somewhat dependent on the catalyst used, the catalyst loading and reaction conditions of temperature and duration, It Is expected that catalyst loadings of not more than 0 1 mol percent, temperatures of not more than 160 degrees Celsius and reaction times of not more than 3 hours will provide commercially acceptable yields of isosorbide, The crude product mixture may then be purified according to any of the known methods for doing so.
• sugar alcohols generally (where "sugar alcohols" is understood to include partially dehydrated sugar alcohols such as, for example, monoanhydrobexitols from the partial dehydration of hexitols), the extent to which certain benefits or advantages are observed, the pellicular water-tolerant Lewis acid catalysts that prove most effective and the optimum process conditions for carrying out the Lewis aeid-ealaiyzed dehydrations can he expected to vary somewhat from one sugar alcohol to the next. As an example, we found bismuth inflate to be particularly advantageous for catalyzing the dehydration of mannitol to isomannide. Those skilled in the art will be well able, in any event, to determine the optimum features of a process for dehydrating a particular sugar alcohol using a water-tolerant, Lewis acid catalyst as claimed herein by routine experimentation.
• Acid % sor j ol isgsof ide 2 : 5;:Scr it n Accountability inversion .vM ims! f*t %;

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• Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
• Organic Chemistry (AREA)
• Heterocyclic Carbon Compounds Containing A Hetero Ring Having Oxygen Or Sulfur (AREA)
• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Low-Molecular Organic Synthesis Reactions Using Catalysts (AREA)
• Chemical Kinetics & Catalysis (AREA)
• Materials Engineering (AREA)
• Bioinformatics & Cheminformatics (AREA)
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• General Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
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• Genetics & Genomics (AREA)
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• 2014
  • 2014-02-21 JP JP2015561383A patent/JP6267240B2/ja not_active Expired - Fee Related
  • 2014-02-21 KR KR1020157027290A patent/KR20150123923A/ko not_active Ceased
  • 2014-02-21 CN CN201480010308.2A patent/CN105026542A/zh active Pending
  • 2014-02-21 WO PCT/US2014/017563 patent/WO2014137619A1/en not_active Ceased
  • 2014-02-21 EP EP14759625.8A patent/EP2964743B1/en not_active Not-in-force
  • 2014-02-21 US US14/771,825 patent/US9630974B2/en not_active Expired - Fee Related

Patent Citations (11)

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