General Electric Company

Sabic Global Technologies B.v.

Sabic Innovative Plastics IP B.v.

Cornelis Adrianus Maria Van Gool

Husnu Alp Alidedeoglu

Bing Zhou

Prashant Kumar

Stephan Mathijs Bouwens

Sasi Sethumadhavan Kannamkumarath

George P Moloney, Jr

Maarten Campman

Daniel Favre

Brian Bougher

Leon Kalle

Jan Van De Broek

Martin H Oyevaar

Mingjie Zhu

Claude Tinney

Anthony Warren

Karithik Balakrishnan

Danny L McNeil

Xiaolin Wu

A device for making polybutylene terephthalate includes (1) a slurry paste vessel; (2) a tower reactor to which a mixture of 1,4-butane diol and terephthalic acid from vessel (1) is supplied, the tower reactor having a plurality of reactor zones wherein the lower third of the tower reactor is in the form of a hydrocyclone with attached heat exchanger, and the hydrocyclone has a supply line from vessel (1), the hydrocyclone being connected to the top side of the tower reactor; (3) a first continuously stirred tank reactor to which the product from tower reactor (2) is supplied; (4) an optional second continuously stirred tank reactor to which the product from (3) is supplied; (5) a dual shaft ring reactor to which the product from stirred tank reactor (3) or (4), is supplied; and (6) a pelletizer where the product from dual shaft ring reactor (5) is continuously fed and pelletized.

Continuous process for making polybutylene terephthalate using purified terephthalic acid and 1,4-butane diol

Disclosed is a continuous process and device for making polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) resin, particularly high molecular weight PBT resin. The process includes combining 1,4-butane diol and purified terephthalic acid to form a mixture and continuously supplying the mixture to a tower reactor having a plurality of reactor zones for esterification and/or transesterification. The product is continuously supplied to a first continuously stirred tank reactor, and further to a continuous polycondensation reactor. Particular conditions for each step of the process are further described herein. Also disclosed are a device for conducting the process, and a monitoring process for determining the carboxylic acid end group concentration of the resulting PBT.

An apparatus for preparing a dialkyl carbonate comprises means for reacting an alkanol, oxygen, carbon monoxide, and a catalyst to form a mixture comprising a dialkyl carbonate, an alkyl chloroformate, hydrochloric acid, water, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide; means for separating from the mixture a gaseous fraction comprising carbon monoxide and alkyl chloroformate; and means for removing alkyl chloroformate from the gaseous fraction.

Apparatus for preparing a dialkyl carbonate

A method of preparing a dialkyl carbonate includes reacting an alkanol, oxygen, carbon monoxide, and a catalyst to form a mixture that includes a dialkyl carbonate and an alkyl chloroformate. The mixture is separated into a liquid fraction and a gaseous fraction, and alkyl chloroformate is removed from the gaseous fraction. Also described is an apparatus for carrying out the method. The method is particularly useful for preventing corrosion in a cold wash unit that removes further organic impurities from the gaseous fraction.

Method and apparatus for preparing a dialkyl carbonate

Disclosed herein are processes for detecting the location of an interface between phases. In one embodiment, the process comprises: introducing a reaction mixture into a vessel wherein the reaction mixture is the product of an at least two phase interfacial reaction, and a difference in densities between at least two of the phases is less than or equal to about 1 g/cc, separating the reaction mixture into the phases with an interface located therebetween, measuring electrical inductance of the reaction mixture at different latitudinal locations; and determining the location of the interface.

Process for detecting the location of a phase interface

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Kapellen, Belgium

Cornelis Adrianus Maria Van Gool