Process for the preparation of percarboxylic acid solutions

摘要

Process for continuous production of substantially anhydrous solutions of percarboxylic acid in solvent. Aqueous hydrogen peroxide is first reacted with the corresponding carboxylic acid in the presence of acid catalyst to form percarboxylic acid and water (1). The percarboxylic acid is extracted with solvent (5), to provide a solvent phase containing the percarboxylic acid (11) and an aqueous raffinate (7). The solvent phase is subjected to distillation (12) to provide the anhydrous solution (13). In this distillation (12) the hydrogen peroxide remaining in the solvent phase produced in the extraction (5), is distilled off together with water and some solvent, and the hydrogen peroxide is recovered as an aqueous phase and recycled (14). The aqueous raffinate, which contains hydrogen peroxide, is distilled to remove water (8) and the resulting concentrate is recycled (2) for use in the reaction (1).