Two stage production of ether from tertiary alcohol

Patent · Tue Jul 27 00:00:00 EDT 1993

OSTI ID:6411782

Arganbright, R P; Hearn, B S

A two stage process is described for the production of ether comprising the steps of: (a) feeding a tertiary alcohol to a first distillation column reactor into a feed zone; (b) concurrently in said first distillation column reactor (i) contacting said tertiary alcohol with an acid ion exchange resin catalyst as a component in distillation structure in a distillation reaction zone at a temperature in the range of 165 to 200 F thereby dissociating said tertiary alcohol to the corresponding tertiary olefin and water, characterized in that sufficient water is maintained in said distillation reaction zone to inhibit the reaction of the tertiary olefin with itself to form dimers and (ii) separating said tertiary olefin and said water by fractional distillation; (c) withdrawing said tertiary olefin from said first distillation column reactor as overheads; (d) withdrawing said unreacted tertiary alcohol and water from said first distillation column reactor as bottoms; (e) feeding said tertiary olefin to a second distillation column reactor into a feed zone; and (f) concurrently in said second distillation column reactor (i) contacting said tertiary olefin diluted with an inert alkane in the mole ratio of 1:5 to 1:100 and a C[sub 1] to C[sub 6] alcohol feed with an acid ion exchange resin catalyst as a component in distillation structure in a distillation reaction zone thereby reacting at least a portion of said alcohol and said tertiary olefin to form a reaction mixture containing an alkyl tertiary alkyl ether, unreacted alcohol and unreacted tertiary olefin, and (ii) separating said alkyl tertiary alkyl ether and said unreacted alcohol from said unreacted tertiary olefin by fractional distillation.

• Assignee: Chemical Research and Licensing Co., Pasadena, TX (United States)
• Patent Number(s): US 5231234; A
• Application Number: PPN: US 7-860174
• OSTI ID: 6411782
• Resource Relation: Patent File Date: 30 Mar 1992
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

10 SYNTHETIC FUELS
ALCOHOLS
DISSOCIATION
ETHERS
SYNTHESIS
FUEL ADDITIVES
ALKANES
CATALYSTS
DISTILLATION
DISTILLATION EQUIPMENT
ION EXCHANGE MATERIALS
SEPARATION PROCESSES
ADDITIVES
EQUIPMENT
HYDROCARBONS
HYDROXY COMPOUNDS
MATERIALS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
100200* - Synthetic Fuels- Production- (1990-)