Conversion of alkanes to alkanols and glycols

Abstract

Lower monobasic or dibasic alcohols are produced by the following steps: a) reacting a starting material with a metallic halide (wherein the metal is in the higher of two possible valence states) to obtain a reaction product, a corresponding metallous halide (wherein the metal is in the lower of the two possible valence states) and hydrohalic acid, and b) reacting the reaction product of step (a) and hydrohalic acid with magnesium oxide to form the corresponding lower monobasic or dibasic alkanol; wherein the starting material for forming a lower monobasic alcohol is a lower alkane, from which the corresponding lower alkanol is obtained; and the starting material for forming a lower dibasic alcohol is either a lower alkanol or a lower alkene, from which the corresponding lower glycol is obtained. Two continuous fluidized-bed systems are provided for conducting the necessary reactions.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.