Preparation of alcohols and/or aldehydes

US5919987A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• BASF SE

Inventors

• Heinz-Josef Kneuper · Mannheim, DE
• Maik Aron · Freinsheim, DE
• Frank-Michael Korgitzsch · Bad Dürkheim, DE
• Michael Nilles · Frankenthal (Pfalz), DE
• Wolfgang Harder · Weinheim, DE
• Michael Roper · Monsheim, DE
• Rocco Paciello · Bad Dürkheim, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Sep 13, 1996
• Grant date: Jul 6, 1999
• Expiry date: Sep 13, 2016

Classification

• Technology area (CPC Y): Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
• CPC primary: Y02P20/584
• WIPO field: Chemical engineering
• WIPO sector: Chemistry

Abstract

An industrial preparation of aldehydes and/or alcohols from olefins of more than 3 carbon atoms by a catalytic hydroformylation of the olefin reactant at a pressure of from 50 to 1000 bar and a temperature of from 50 to 180.degree. C. in the presence of an uncomplexed rhodium catalyst homogeneously dissolved in the reaction medium. The catalytic activity of the rhodium is maintained, first by extracting it from the initially discharged reaction mixture by means of an aqueous solution of a nitrogen-containing complexing agent such as sulfonated or carboxylated pyridines, quinolines or the like. In a recycle of the complexed rhodium to be reused in the hydroformylation reaction, the aqueous rhodium-containing extract is fed to a precarbonylation stage where it subjected to a required precarbonylation in the presence of an essentially water-insoluble organic liquid and in the presence of carbon monoxide, synthesis gas or another gas mixture containing carbon monoxide at from 50 to 1000 bar and from 50 to 180.degree. C. The mixture discharged from this precarbonylation stage is then separated into an organic phase containing the main part of the rhodium and an aqueous phase containing …