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 the preparation of an alkylene oxide and a stream of glycol ethers comprising:
Reacting an alkylene with hydrogen peroxide or hydrogen and oxygen under conditions sufficient to produce a product stream comprising the desired alkylene oxide; Introducing the product stream into a distillation column to produce a refined product 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; Reacting the refined product stream with a catalyst comprising a metal-ligand complex, an acid, a base, or a combination of any number of these to produce a reacted stream comprising less than 1 wt % alkyl alcohol; and Introducing the reacted stream into a second distillation column to provide a substantially pure stream of alkylene oxide and a stream of glycol ethers.