Celanese International Corporation

Oxea Bishop LLC

Hoechst Celanese Corporation

Kenneth Allen Windhorst

Oakley T Cortez

R Jay Warner

Donald K Raff

Carl David Murphy

H Robert Gerberich

Gabriel R Chapa

Marcos L Schroeder

Fred Gaytan

Deborah A Sitz

Russell Mark Stephens

John Leslie Ray, Jr

Martin Dominic Mancha

Kimberly Ann Horan

Nicole Garrett-Wallace

Nicole G Wallace

John C McCall

David P Harris

Jeffrey R Kirkpatrick

Jennifer L Bailey

Benjamin A Gilbert

A process for forming stabilizing paraformaldehyde can include heating a formaldehyde solution comprising 30 wt % or more formaldehyde to a temperature ranging from about 70° C. to about 130° C.; aging the formaldehyde solution for a sufficient amount of time to polymerize the formaldehyde and form paraformaldehyde; solidifying the paraformaldehyde; and contacting the formaldehyde solution before and/or during heating, the formaldehyde solution during aging, the paraformaldehyde, and/or the solidified paraformaldehyde with an ammonia and/or ammonia hydroxide stabilizer.

Ammonia and ammonium hydroxide stabilizers for paraformaldehyde

A method of reclaiming trimethylolpropane from purification residue includes hydrolyzing a purification residue with an aqueous medium in the presence of (i) an acid and (ii) an oxidizing agent. The method is particularly effective to reclaim trimethylolpropane from monolinear-bis-TMP-formal:

Recovery of trimethylolpropane from purification residue

A method of reclaiming alcohols from purification residue includes hydrolyzing a purification residue with an aqueous medium in the presence of (i) an acid and (ii) an oxidizing agent.

Recovery of alcohols from purification residue

A method of reducing odor of 1,3-butylene glycol includes contacting the 1,3-butylene glycol with an activated carbon selected from wood-based activated carbons and chemically activated carbons.

1,3 butylene glycol with reduced odor

The present invention provides a process for improving the color of trimethylolpropane which comprises the steps of a) supplying a crude, aqueous base solution of trimethylolpropane, containing color causing impurities, and having a pH of less than about 9; b) contacting said base solution with an alkaline material for a period of time sufficient to increase the pH of said base solution to greater than 11 and at a sufficient temperature to allow the color causing impurities to react with said alkaline material; c) cooling the resulting solution from step (b) for a sufficient period of time; d) contacting said base solution of step (c) with an organic acid for a sufficient period of time to lower the pH thereof to less than about 9.5; e) extracting the trimethylolpropane from said base solution of step (d) with an organic solvent; f) separating the trimethylolpropane from said organic solvent; and g) purifying said trimethylolpropane from step f) to form a trimethylolpropane having a phthalic color of less than 0.20 and an acid wash color of less than 8.

Trimethylolpropane color improvement

Carboxylic acids, ketones, and esters having improved color characteristics are produced by combining small quantities of water with these compounds. An amount of water ranging from about 100 ppm to about 50,000 ppm of the organic compound is combined to provide lighter color compounds in comparison to these same compounds to which no water is added. Additionally, the color characteristics of the organic compounds may be improved by introducing a stream of the organic compound into at least one distillation column maintained at a temperature of about 23&#xb0; C. to about 250&#xb0; C. and at a pressure of about 10.1 kPa to about 202.6 kPa. Subjecting the organic compound stream to distillation under these conditions allows precursors of color bodies, having boiling points lower than the boiling point of the product being produced, to thermally breakdown or to be removed in the overhead stream form the distillation column.

Processes for preparing organic compounds having improved color characteristics

Disclosed herein is an improved process for producing ethyl acetate comprising contacting acetic acid and ethanol in a reaction zone in the presence of an acid catalyst, distilling formed vapors and condensing to form an organic phase rich in ethyl acetate and an aqueous phase rich in water, separating the phases and further distilling each phase to obtain a final purified ethyl acetate product and a water stream low in organic components, the improvement comprising directing the organic phase from the first distillation to the reaction zone. An alternate embodiment involves directing at least a portion of the organic phase from the first distillation to a membrane separation unit which removes water and/or alcohol from the organic phase rich in ethyl acetate.

Process improvement for continuous ethyl acetate production

A process for separating water from methanol in an aqueous methanol initial mixture, including subjecting said mixture to azeotropic distillation in the presence of sufficient added methyl acrylate to form an azeotrope with most of the methanol in said initial mixture such that a substantial proportion of methanol in the initial mixture is removed as an azeotrope of methanol and methyl acrylate in the overhead vapors resulting from said distillation and a major proportion of water in said initial mixture is removed in the liquid residue of said distillation.

Process for removing water from aqueous methanol

Gamma-Butyrolactone (GBL) is recovered from a mixture containing GBL and other heavy organics by a process of azeotropic distillation in the presence of a C,hydrocarbon as an azeotroping agent, wherein an azeotrope of GBL and the hydrocarbon is obtained as a distillate, which forms immiscible GBL-rich and hydrocarbon-rich phases, and the hydrocarbon-rich phase is decanted or isolated from the GBL-rich phase. By this process GBL can be efficiently separated from a large proportion of various compounds having boiling points close to that of GBL, e.g., the methyl-&ggr;-butyrolactones (MeGBL's).

Process for recovering &ggr;-butyrolactone from a mixture of heavy organics

A method of purifying the oxidate product formed by the liquid phase oxidation of C.sub.4 -C.sub.8 paraffinic hydrocarbons comprises adding a strong acid catalyst to the oxidate product to catalyze the break down of Michael addition products of unsaturated carbonyls and carboxylic acids so that the carbonyls can be distilled off during the initial stages of purification.

Growing community of inventors

Portland, TX, United States of America

Kenneth Allen Windhorst