Bayer Aktiengesellschaft

Hans Kerres

Reinhard Thiel

Heinz Jorg Rosenbaum

Karl-Heinz Dietz

Siegfried Steiner

A process has been developed for the oxidation of organic substances, dissolved or dispersed in an aqueous system, with a gas containing molecular oxygen at elevated temperature and under elevated pressure chiefly to carbon dioxide and water, with subsequent phase separation of the reaction mixture into a gaseous phase substantially containing inert gas, carbon dioxide, steam and organic constituents and a liquid phase substantially containing water, characterized in that the pressure is adjusted, at the given temperature, so that by evaporation of water from the aqueous system, more steam than the exothermicity of the oxidation reaction gives rise to, goes into the gaseous phase, which is fed to a heat exchanger in which the amount of heat required to maintain the oxidation temperature is completely or partially transferred to a mixture of water and a gas containing molecular oxygen, which mixture flows in on the other side of the heat exchanger and is subsequently fed to the reactor. A particular advantage of the process of the invention is that, in addition to the oxidation of organic substances, it is possible to feed inorganic constituents, after the oxidative degradation of the organic substances, to a re-use or recovery process.

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Krefeld, Germany

Hans Kerres