METHOD OF PREPARING TERT-BUTANOL Russian patent published in 1997 - IPC

FIELD: chemical industry. SUBSTANCE: present invention describes method of preparing tert-butanol from isobutylene-containing hydrocarbon mixtures by hydration in the presence of heterogeneous acid type catalysts at elevated temperatures and pressure in flow and reaction-extraction type reactors to produce alcohols by rectification. The claimed method comprises preliminarily contacting initial hydrocarbon mixture with water in prereactor, water is fed in amount of 1 to 25 % of total amount at water to isobutylene water ratio from 0.4 to 5.0 to recover the resulting tert-butanol as extract in stream of unreacted hydrocarbons. The resulting extract containing 15-20 % tert-butanol is directed to separate alcohol to residual content of 1-5 wt% by rectification. After separation of tert-butanol the extract is contacted with the remaining amount of water in counter-flow reaction-extraction reactor at water to isobutylene molar ratio from 25 to 150. Water containing 0.1-1.0 wt% tert-butanol is supplied to top portion of reaction-extraction reactor and water containing no tert-butanol is supplied to the portion located 5-15 trays higher. EFFECT: more efficient preparation method. 2 cl