Lion Corporation

Itsuo Hama

Hirofumi Nakamura

Takahiro Okamoto

Hisashi Sasamoto

Yuichi Nakamoto

Shingo Uemura

Yuji Fujimori

The present invention provides an alkoxylation solid catalyst with which an alkylene oxide adduct having a narrow adduct distribution can be produced while inhibiting formation of high molecular weight polyalkylene glycol having a molecular weight of about tens of thousands as a by-product. The alkoxylation catalyst comprises a metal oxide containing magnesium, aluminum, and at least one metal selected from the metals that belong to group VIA, group VIIA, and group VIII as a third component. The third component metal changes the structure of the active site in the catalyst, for example, by forming a metal oxide having a spinel-type structure with aluminum (e.g. when the third component metal is Mn, MnAl O is formed), so that a side reaction of forming a high molecular weight polyalkylene glycol is inhibited.

Alkoxylation catalyst and method for producing the same, and method for producing alkylene oxide adduct using the catalyst

A method of producing alkylene oxide adduct comprises reacting an organic compound having one or more active hydrogen (for example, higher alcohol, amine, etc.) with alkylene oxide in the presence of an Al.Mg composite oxide catalyst. The catalyst can be obtained by calcining and activating aluminum magnesium hydroxide shown by nMgO.Al.sub.2 O.sub.3.mH.sub.2 O. In this method, a highly active reaction can be performed, and alkylene oxide adduct having very narrow alkylene oxide adduct molar distribution can be obtained. Since the load in a catalyst separating step is reduced, the catalyst can be efficiently separated. Therefore, the alkylene oxide adduct can be produced at low cost. In addition, the reaction can be performed at high speed, and the reaction time can be reduced.

Method of producing an alkylene oxide adduct of a compound having one or

In a method of manufacturing fatty acid esters of polyoxyalkylene alkyl ethers, fatty acid alkyl ester is reacted with alkylene oxide in the presence of a catalyst consisting essentially of a magnesium oxide added with at least one metal ion selected from the group consisting of Al.sup.3+, Ga.sup.3+, In.sup.3+, Tl.sup.3+, Co.sup.3+, Sc.sup.3+, La.sup.3+, and Mn.sup.2+ to manufacture a compound having the following formula: ##STR1## wherein each of R.sub.1 and R.sub.3 independently represents an alkyl group, R.sub.2 represents an alkylene group, and n is a positive integer.

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Chiba, Japan

Itsuo Hama