In industry, 1-octene is commonly manufactured by two main routes:
oligomerization of
ethylene and by
Fischer–Tropsch synthesis followed by purification. Another route to 1-octene that has been used commercially on a small scale is
dehydration of
alcohols. Prior to the 1970s, 1-octene was also manufactured by thermal cracking of
waxes, whereas linear internal
octenes were also manufactured by
chlorination/
dehydrochlorination of
linear alkanes. There are five commercial processes that
oligomerize ethylene to 1-octene. Four of these processes produce 1-octene as a part of a wide distribution of alpha-olefins. In typical circumstances,
1-hexene content of the entire distribution of alpha-olefins ranges from about 25% of the distribution in the
Ethyl (
Innovene) process to about 8% of distribution in some modes of the
Gulf (CP Chemicals) and
Idemitsu processes. The only commercial process to isolate 1-octene from a wide mixture of C8 hydrocarbons is practiced by
Sasol, a
South African oil and gas and petrochemical company. For commercial purposes, Sasol employs
Fischer–Tropsch synthesis to make fuels from
synthesis gas derived from coal and recovers 1-octene from these fuel streams, where the initial 1-octene concentration in a narrow
distillation cut may be 60%, with the remainder being vinylidenes, linear and branched internal olefins, linear and branched paraffins,
alcohols,
aldehydes,
carboxylic acids, and
aromatic hydrocarbons. Another route to 1-octene involves butadiene
telomerization of butadiene. This technology was commercialized by Dow in a facility in
Tarragona. 1-Methoxy- 2,7-octadiene is an intermediate in this process. Yet another route converts 1-heptene to 1-octene plant based on a Fischer-Tropsch-derived C7 olefin stream (Sasol, Secunda). Other 1-octene technologies exist based on selective tetramerisation of ethylene. ==Applications==