Method for converting alkanes to oxygenates
AssigneeExxonMobil Chemical Patents Inc.
InventorsClarence D. Chang, Jose G. Santiesteban
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Abstract
The invention discloses a method for converting alkane to oxygenate which comprises the following steps: (i) contacting an alkane-containing gas with non-metal, regenerable, electrophile ions in a concentrated sulfuric acid medium under conditions sufficient to provide electrophilicly activated alkane and reduced electrophile ions; (ii) contacting said electrophilicly activated alkane with sulfate to form a sulfate ester; (iii) exposing the sulfate ester to hydrolyzing conditions sufficient to convert it to oxygenate; and (iv) collecting the oxygenate.
Claims11
A method for converting alkane to oxygenate which comprises the following steps:
- i) contacting an alkane-containing gas with non-metal, regenerable, electrophile ions in a concentrated sulfuric acid medium under conditions sufficient to provide electrophilicly activated alkane and reduced electrophile ions, wherein at least one of said electrophile ions is selected from the group consisting of chloronium, nitrosonium, and nitronium;
- ii) contacting said electrophilicly activated alkane with sulfate to form a sulfate ester;
- iii) exposing said sulfate ester to hydrolyzing conditions sufficient to convert it to oxygenate;
- and
- iv) collecting said oxygenate.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.