PROCESS AND EQUIPMENT FOR THE PRODUCTION OF MONO(LOWER ALKYL)MONOALKANOLAMINES

摘要

Equipment for the production of amines which is constituted of a reactor (11) for conducting the reaction of a mono(lower alkyl)amine (raw material (I)) with an alkylene oxide (raw material (II)), a distillation column (14) for separating and recovering unreacted raw materials by distillation from the product (12) formed in the reactor (11) which product contains unreacted raw materials, a nonaqueous distillation column (16) for removing water and a light component(17) by distillation from the reaction product (13) obtained above which is free from unreacted raw materials (15), and a purification distillation column (18) for separating the reaction product (13a) after the removal of water and the light component (17) into an objective reaction product (mono(lower alkyl)monoalkanolamine) (19) and a residue (dimer, i.e., mono(lower alkyl)dialkanolamine) (20) by distillation. A mono(lower alkyl)monoalkanolamine can be efficiently produced by the water-catalyzed method in a subcritical state by the use of the equipment and by controlling the temperature, pressure, water concentration and molar ratio between raw materials to fall within prescribed ranges of 50 to 250°C, 0.1 to 10MPa, 5 to 20% by weight, and 0.05 to 0.35, respectively.