Continuous hydroformylation of olefinically unsaturated compounds

US4778929A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• BASF SE

Inventors

• Peter Zehner · Ludwigshafen, DE
• Herwig Hoffmann · Bischofswerda, DE
• Wolfgang Richter · Haar, DE
• Dieter Stuetzer · Dudenhofen, DE
• Max Strohmeyer · Schifferstadt, DE
• Helmut Walz · Ludwigshafen, DE
• Erich Weippert · Mannheim, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Jul 8, 1987
• Grant date: Oct 18, 1988
• Expiry date: Jul 8, 2007

Classification

• Technology area (CPC C): Chemistry; Metallurgy
• CPC primary: C07C45/50
• WIPO field: Organic fine chemistry
• WIPO sector: Chemistry

Abstract

Olefinically unsaturated compounds are hydroformylated continuously, the olefin being passed into the lower region of the reactor, under from 1 to 40 bar and at from 50.degree. to 140.degree. C. with the aid of a rhodium complex as a catalyst in a hydroformylation reactor having a liquid reaction zone which occupies about 60-85% of the reactor volume, the gaseous products and reactants being removed from the hydroformylation reactor, the products being isolated and the major part of the remaining gas being recycled to the reactor by the cycle gas method, by a process in which from 20 to 80% by volume of the cycle gas is fed into the hydroformylation reactor above the liquid reaction zone and/or below the liquid surface in the top fourth of the liquid reaction zone.