Johnson Matthey Davy Technologies Limited

Fraser Robert Archibald

David Welch

Martin Smidt

Adrian Lord

Robert Arthur Jolly

Maria Del Amo Lopez

David Keith Welch

A process for the hydroformylation of olefins to aldehydes is disclosed. The process comprises: hydroformylating one or more olefins with hydrogen and carbon monoxide in the presence of a ligand-rhodium catalyst in a reaction zone; recovering a reactor effluent from the reaction zone, the reactor effluent comprising product aldehyde and the ligand-rhodium catalyst; passing the reactor effluent and a strip gas to a vaporiser, wherein the strip gas comprises carbon monoxide and is formed from a recycle strip gas stream and a make-up strip gas stream, wherein the product aldehyde is vaporised into the strip gas in the vaporiser resulting in a vapour mixture, comprising the strip gas and the product aldehyde, and a liquid mixture, comprising the ligand-rhodium catalyst; recovering the liquid mixture and recycling the ligand-rhodium catalyst to the reaction zone; recovering the vapour mixture and separating the product aldehyde from the vapour mixture.

Process for hydroformylation of olefins to aldehydes

A process for the production of normal-butanol, iso-butanol and 2-alkyl alkanol is disclosed. The process comprises: hydrogenating a feed comprising normal butyraldehyde, iso-butyraldehyde and 2-alkyl alkenal to form a crude product stream comprising normal-butanol, iso-butanol, 2-alkyl alkanol, unreacted normal butyraldehyde, unreacted iso-butyraldehyde and one or more of unreacted 2-alkyl alkenal, 2-alkyl alkanal or 2-alkyl alkenol; separating the crude product stream to produce: a mixed butanol stream having higher concentrations of normal butanol, iso-butanol, unreacted normal butyraldehyde and unreacted iso-butyraldehyde than the crude product stream; and a crude 2-alkyl alkanol stream having higher concentrations of 2-alkyl alkanol and the one or more of unreacted 2-alkyl alkenal, 2-alkyl alkanal or 2-alkyl alkenol than the crude product stream; separating the mixed butanol stream to produce: a refined normal butanol stream having a higher concentration of normal butanol than the mixed butanol stream; and a crude iso-butanol stream having a higher concentration of iso-butanol than the mixed butanol stream; feeding the crude iso-butanol stream to a first polishing hydrogenation reactor wherein at least some of the unreacted iso-butyraldehyde is converted to iso-butanol to produce a polished iso-butanol stream; separating the polished iso-butanol stream to produce: a refined iso-butanol stream having a higher concentration of iso-butanol than the polished iso-butanol stream; and a light waste stream; separating the crude 2-alkyl alkanol stream to produce: an intermediate 2-alkyl alkanol stream having higher concentrations of 2-alkyl alkanol and the one or more of unreacted 2-alkyl alkenal, 2-alkyl alkanal or 2-alkyl alkenol than the crude 2-alkyl alkanol stream; and a heavy waste stream; feeding the intermediate 2-alkyl alkanol stream to a second polishing hydrogenation reactor wherein at least some of the one or more of unreacted 2-alkyl alkenal, 2-alkyl alkanal or 2-alkyl alkenol is converted to 2-alkyl alkanol to produce a polished 2-alkyl alkanol stream having a higher concentration of 2-alkyl alkanol than the intermediate 2-alkyl alkanol stream; separating the polished 2-alkyl alkanol stream to produce: a refined 2-alkyl alkanol stream having a higher concentration of 2-alkyl alkanol than the polished 2-alkyl alkanol stream; and an intermediate waste stream.

Process for making a feed of normal butanol, iso-butanol and 2-alkyl alkanol

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London, United Kingdom

Fraser Robert Archibald