Patent ID: 7718834

Claim:
A method for preparing primary long-chain alcohols or mixtures thereof having on average n carbon atoms, n being greater than or equal to 20, in a growth reaction, the method comprising: (a) providing aluminum compounds as starting compounds of the growth reaction, each having at least one hydrocarbon residue with at least (n/2+2) carbon atoms, each hydrocarbon residue being bound to the aluminum atom via a primary carbon atom; (b) bringing together the starting compounds in a growth composition containing ethylene for the conversion with ethylene to form at least aluminum compounds as growth compounds, each having, compared to the starting compound, at least one hydrocarbon residue with on average at least z+(n/2+2) carbon atoms, z being greater than or equal to 2; (c) oxidizing the growth compounds with oxygen in order to obtain aluminum oxy compounds having at least one hydrocarbon residue that is bound to the aluminum atom via oxygen; (d) hydrolyzing of the aluminum oxy compounds; and (e) separating a composition containing on average alcohols having greater than or equal to 20 carbon atoms.