The Dow Chemical Company

Jonathan A Okorley

Thomas J Dietsche

James Sinclair

H Hunter Paalman

Paula L Humphreys

The concentration of alkali metal hydroxide contaminants in solutions of alkali metal alkoxides in alcohols is reduced to below about 0.1 percent by adding an alkyl alkanoate ester. For example, a solution of sodium methoxide in methanol containing about 0.04 percent sodium hydroxide was obtained by adding a small amount of methyl acetate. The alkali metal alkanoate salt formed as a by-product does not deleteriously affect most uses of such solutions.

Removal of hydroxide ion from alkoxide ion solutions

Trichloro- and tetrachloro(trichloromethyl)pyridines contaminated with hexachlorobenzene are converted to useful products containing acceptably low levels of hexachlorobenzene by chlorination under conditions of chlorinolysis to tetrachloro- and pentachloropyridine and then removing the hexachlorobenzene by distillation. For example, 2,3,6-trichloro-5-(trichloromethyl)pyridine contaminated with hexachlorobenzene is converted to 2,3,5,6-tetrachloropyridine containing less than 50 ppm hexachlorobenzene.

Polychloropyridines from polychloropicolines contaminated with

Metal chloride catalysts employed in liquid phase chlorination reactions are recovered by treating the reaction mass with oxygen or air to form solid metal oxychloride compounds which can be separated and reused.

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Antioch, CA, United States of America

Jonathan A Okorley