[Bosnian_hero]

Hi,
I am new on this forum, I am conducting a small research of my own and I would like to know a few things, since my chemistry knowledge is small and limited.

I need to produce butanol or butene to produce butanol.
Here is a list of the supstances I am allowed to use:
CO (carbon monoxide)
CO₂ (carbon dioxide)
H₂O (water)
O₂ (oxygen)
H₂ (hydrogen)
CH₄ (methane)
Any other alkane, from methane to buthane.

I don't mind if it requires electrical, solar, heat, nuclear or any other type of energy, I can use all. Of course the energy usage should be moderate. My goal is to produce butanol or butene (which can be converted to butanol).

Thank you for your time.

[Stewed_ant]

Hmm we don't have much chemicals to work with 

To make Butanol out of butene you need to do a hydartion reaction, with butene, water, and an acid catalyst like, H3P04 or sulfuric acid which i don't think you have... but maybe you can buy sulfuric acid?  but please be careful.

To make an Alkene, like Butene, you need an alkane, like butane and you need to do an elimantion reaction by adding Base to the alkane.. (problem is i don't know how much or what kind).

You might be able to make butane by using the methane.... maybe i'm making this sound more complicated than it is due to my inexperience.

I tried...

-A Syrian Sister.


Any ideas with these ingredients anyone? I would also like to know, heh heh, yes. that would be very useful. 

[Alberto_Kravina]

Under certain conditions butane reacts with oxygen to form butanone which can be easily hydrogenated to butanol. Butene is easily made from butanol by elimination of water.

CH₃-CH₂-CH₂-CH₃ + O ₂ ? CH₃-CO-CH₂-CH₃ + H₂O

Butanone can be converted to butanol and butene as mentioned before.

[Stewed_ant]

but how can he do it using his ingredients/reactants.

is it possible?

[Alberto_Kravina]

Here is a list of the supstances I am allowed to use:
CO (carbon monoxide)
CO2 (carbon dioxide)
H2O (water)
O2 (oxygen)
H2 (hydrogen)
CH4 (methane)
Any other alkane, from methane to buthane.

[Stewed_ant]

OH oh, Uerika i found it.

You should post your question here http://www.chemicalforums.com/index.php?board=9.0

"citizen Chemists"

This board is for the instruction in useful Chemistry experiments. To tell others of cool projects you are working on as a citizen chemist.

[Borek]

Uerika

You've made my day

[Bosnian_hero]

Thanks, could someone give me a complete formula. I can use other chemcials as long as I don't "waste" them. Alberto_kravina gave a good answer, but I don't understand it. Could you make a formula and please use short forms, not CH3-CH2-CH2-CH3, just use C4H10 instead. Anyways the product of your formula was C4H8O, which isn't butanol. AFAIK, butanol is C4H9OH meaning that you lack 2 hydrogen atoms.

[Alberto_Kravina]

Could you make a formula and please use short forms, not CH3-CH2-CH2-CH3, just use C4H10 instead. Anyways the product of your formula was C4H8O, which isn't butanol. AFAIK, butanol is C4H9OH meaning that you lack 2 hydrogen atoms.

It wouldn't help much to write the formula as you said. It is much better to write like I did...

The product that I wrote,  CH3-CO-CH2-CH3, is Butanone.

Butanone can be hydrogenated to butanol. Hydrogenation = reaction with H₂

Try to write the reaction equation, it's easier than you think , also, try to solve the reaction equation with the structure that I mentioned. It's much easier to detect the carbonyl group which is hydrogenated in the next step.

- CO - + H₂ ? - CH -
                          |
                         OH

To produce butene, well that's pretty easy: Water is eliminated from the butanol molecule
?products: Butene and water

[Borek]

I need to produce butanol or butene to produce butanol.

Which butanol?

[Alberto_Kravina]

Which butanol?

Good question.....You should also say if you want to produce a specific isomer of butene....

[Bosnian_hero]

Any butanol will do good. I need it as fuel. Thanks a lot for helping me.

[Donaldson Tan]

Industrial dehydrogenation of butane will produce butene. It uses Butane at extremely high pressure with a superacid catalyst supported in Alumina. The problem with this process is selectivity. You need But-1-ene to produce Butanol, but this process will produce about 30-40% But-2-ene in the product stream and the remainder 60-70% of the Butane converted will be But-1-ene.