PROCESS FOR THE PREPARATION OF TERTIARY BUTYL ALCOHOL

摘要

The invention provides an improvement of a process for preparing tertiary butyl alcohol from isobutylene which comprises reacting isobutylene or a hydrocarbon mixture containing isobutylene with an aqueous solution of an aliphatic carboxylic acid having from 1 to 6 carbon atoms in the presence of a solid, acidic ion-exchange resin as catalyst, to produce an aqueous reaction mixture of a major amount of tertiary butyl alcohol and d minor amount of the tertiary butyl ester of the carboxylic acid. That improvement comprises subjecting the reaction mixture to distillation to remove unreacted isobutylene or hydrocarbon mixture therefrom, and thereafter supplying the treated reaction mixture of the distillation step to a distillation column and passing water from the top to the bottom of the distillation column to remove the tertiary butyl ester of the carboxylic acid.