BUTYL ALCOHOLS PRODUCTION PROCESS Russian patent published in 2005 - IPC

FIELD: industrial organic synthesis.

SUBSTANCE: invention relates to production of butyl alcohols via oxo synthesis, which comprises propylene hydroformylation stage using cobalt carbonyls as catalyst; distilling off butyric aldehyde concentrate containing, in addition to butyric aldehydes, butyl alcohols, water, unsaturated and saturated dibutyl ethers, butyl formates, butyl butyrates, hydrocarbons, aldehydes and alcohols C-₈, C₁₂-acetals, and other high-boiling by-products; and liquid-phase hydrogenation of above concentrate on alumino-zinc-chromium catalyst at 280-320°C and pressure 240-300 kg/cm² followed by recovering commercial isobutyl and n-butyl alcohols from resulting hydrogenate by rectification of six columns. The latter stage comprises: isolation of unreacted butyric aldehydes, methanol, water, and hydrocarbon traces from top part of first column; passing bottom product of the first column into second column and isolation of butyl alcohols with traces of unsaturated and saturated dibutyl ethers from top part of second column; passing bottom product of the second column into third column and isolation of residual butyl alcohols from top part of third column operated at residual pressure 40-400 mm Hg; passing second-column distillate into fourth column and isolation of crude isobutyl alcohol from top part of forth column and crude butyl alcohol from bottom part of the same column. Commercial isobutyl alcohol is obtained on fifth column and commercial butyl alcohol on sixth column. Furthermore, hydrogenation raw mix is supplemented by mixture of water and third-column distillate fraction 140-170°C at weight ratio (0.3-4.0):1, respectively, so that summary concentration of water in hydrogenation raw mix is maintained between 2.0 and 6.0 wt %.

EFFECT: increased yield of butyl alcohols.

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