Celanese International Corporation

Iva Franjkic

Victor J Johnston

Heiko Weiner

David E Lee

Zhenhua Zhou

Radmila Wollrab

R Jay Warner

Radmila Jevtic

Adam Orosco

Emily Duff

A process for produce ethanol by hydrogenation acetic acid and/or esters thereof is disclosed. The process involves reacting hydrogen feed stream with an acetic acid feed stream in a reactor operated in the presence of a catalyst to form an ethanol mixture and monitoring carbon monoxide concentration of the fresh hydrogen feed stream and adjusting temperature in the reactor in response to the carbon monoxide concentration of the fresh hydrogen feed stream.

Process for producing ethanol by hydrogenation with carbon monoxide controls

The present invention produces ethanol in a reactor that comprises a catalyst composition and a feed stream comprising acetic acid and a recycled liquid stream comprising ethyl acetate. The catalyst composition comprises a first catalyst comprising platinum, cobalt, and/or tin and a second catalyst comprising copper. The crude ethanol product may be separated and ethanol recovered.

Process for the production of ethanol from an acetic acid feed and a recycled ethyl acetate feed

Disclosed herein are processes for alcohol production by hydrogenating acetic acid to obtain a mixture of ethanol and acetic acid, esterifying the mixture to produce an esterification product and reducing the esterification product. The mixture may provide a sufficient amount of ethanol and acetic acid for esterification and reduces the need for additional acetic acid and/or ethanol. This may reduce the recycle of ethanol in the hydrogenolysis process and improve ethanol productivity.

Esterifying an ethanol and acetic acid mixture to produce an ester feed for hydrogenolysis

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League City, TX, United States of America

Iva Franjkic