Process and assembly for producing alkylene oxides and glycol ethers

摘要

There is provided a process for manipulating the amount of alkyl alcohol in a product stream, e.g., such as an alkylene oxide product stream. More particularly, and in contrast to conventional processes wherein substantially all of the alkyl alcohol must be separated and desirably recycled, in the present process, a greater amount of alkyl alcohol may be allowed to remain in a partially refined alkylene oxide product stream. The residual alkyl alcohol is subsequently substantially entirely reacted to form a downstream product, e.g., a glycol ether, which is more easily separated from the alkylene oxide product stream. Indeed, the amount of alkyl alcohol in the partially refined alkylene oxide product stream can be selected based upon the output of glycol ethers, if desired.

主权项

1. A process for manipulating the amount of an alkyl alcohol in a mixture comprising from about 5 to about 15 weight percent alkylene oxide, about 50 to about 85 weight percent alcohol and about 10 to about 25 weight percent water, comprising:
Introducing the mixture into a distillation column to produce a refined stream comprising from about 70 to about 95 weight percent alkylene oxide, about 1 to about 30 weight percent alkyl alcohol and about 0.1 to about 4.9 weight percent water; and Reacting the refined stream with a catalyst comprising a metal-ligand complex, an acid, a base, a metal alkoxide, or a combination of any number of these to reduce the alkyl alcohol content in a resulting reacted stream to less than 1 wt %.