Light olefins such as ethylene, propylene, and butylenes, are basic building blocks for petrochemicals. Further, these olefins are also useful for production of clean fuels such as alkylates – which have high octanes but no sulfur, olefins, and aromatics – or as octaneenhancers such as ethers. The conventional olefin production process is steam cracking of C2−C4 light paraffins from natural gas...

Two research projects that examined source area sheetflows that were conducted in the 1990s are high-lighted in this chapter. These are a comprehensive project conducted in Birmingham, AL, as part of a project developing a control strategy for critical source areas, and a series of related projects conducted in Wisconsin as part of the DNR’s efforts in calibrating the Source Loading and Managem...

An efficient cyclopropanation of olefins with Zn(CH2I)2, a catalytic amount of CCl3CO2H, and 1,2-dimethoxyethane at room temperature is described. A wide variety of olefins, including acid-sensitive substrates, can be cyclopropanated in 71-99% yield.

The asymmetric synthesis of [7]helicene was accomplished in good ee (80%) by kinetic resolution by means of asymmetric olefin metathesis. Three key factors contributed to the success of the kinetic resolution: the use of new Ru-based olefin metathesis catalysts bearing C1-symmetric N-heterocyclic carbene ligands, simple olefins as additives to control the nature of the propagating alkylidene an...

Although the α-alkylation of ketones has already been established, the analogous reaction using aldehyde substrates has proven surprisingly elusive. Despite the structural similarities between the two classes of compounds, the sensitivity and unique reactivity of the aldehyde functionality has typically required activated substrates or specialized additives. Here, we show that the synergistic m...