Linear alpha olefins (LAO) or normal alpha olefins (NAO) are olefins or alkenes with a chemical formula CxH2x, distinguished from other mono-olefins with a similar molecular formula by linearity of the hydrocarbon chain and the position of the double bond at the primary or alpha position. Linear alpha olefins are a range of industrially important alpha-olefins, including 1-butene, 1-hexene, 1-octene, 1-decene, 1-dodecene, 1-tetradecene, 1-hexadecene, 1-octadecene and higher olefin blends of C20-C24, C24-C30, and C20-C30 ranges. Synthesis Overview Industrially, linear alpha olefins are commonly manufactured by two main routes: oligomerization of ethylene and by Fischer–Tropsch synthesis followed by purification. Another route to linear alpha olefins which has been used commercially on small scale is dehydration of alcohols. Prior to about the 1970s, linear alpha olefins were also manufactured by thermal cracking of waxes, whereas linear internal olefins were also manufactured by chlorination/dehydrochlorination of linear paraffins. There are seven commercial processes which oligomerize ethylene to linear alpha olefins. Five of these processes produce wide distributions of linear alpha olefins. These are the Ethyl Corporation (Ineos) process, Gulf (Chevron Phillips Chemical Company), Shell Oil Company SHOP process, the Idemitsu Petrochemical process and the SABIC-Linde α-Sablin process. The newest commercial linear alpha olefin process is the Sabic-Linde α-Sablin process, commercialized by SABIC in Saudi Arabia. The α-Sablin process is a low-pressure ethylene oligomerization process conducted over heterogeneous catalyst in a slurry bed. The process also makes a C4-C20+ distribution of alpha-olefins. Sabic announced the commercialization of a 150,000 metric tons per year plant using the α-Sablin process at their Jubail plant on the Gulf coast of Saudi Arabia in 2009. The plant construction was managed by Linde’s subsidiary Linde-KCA-Dresden GmbH, Germany. Two commercial processes make a single alpha-olefin carbon number. Phillips (CP Chemical Company) ethylene trimerization process, produces only 1-hexene. Another commercial process, offered by a technology licensor IFP, dimerizes ethylene to high purity 1-butene. There are two alpha-olefin processes that have not been commercialized as of Q2, 2010. One is an ethylene oligomerization to a wide range of linear alpha olefins technology being offered by a technology licensor UOP. The other is the DuPont Versipol technology. To date, no commercial plants have been built using either UOP or DuPont's technology. The only commercial process to isolate linear alpha olefins from synthetic crude is practiced by Sasol Ltd., a South African oil and gas and petrochemical company. Sasol commercially employs Fischer–Tropsch synthesis to make