Idemitsu Petrochemical Co., Ltd.

Naoya Kawano

Hiroshi Kawasaki

Toshihide Yoshitome

Processes for the preparation of 3-alkoxyalkanols useful as solvents for coating materials, photoresists, or the like. Specifically, (1) a process which comprises reacting an &agr;,&bgr;-unsaturated aldehyde with an alcohol in the presence of an acidic catalyst and subjecting the obtained product to hydrolysis and hydrogenation successively; (2) a process which comprises subjecting a reaction mixture obtained by the reaction of an &agr;,&bgr;-unsaturated aldehyde with an alcohol and comprising the corresponding 1,1,3-trialkoxyalkane and 3-alkoxyalkanal to hydrolysis and hydrogenation at the same time; (3) a process which comprises recovering a 3-alkoxyalkanal through distillation as an azeotropic mixture thereof with water from a reaction solution obtained by the reaction of an alcohol with acid-containing acrolein or methacrolein prepared by the oxidation of propylene or isobutylene, and hydrogenating the recovered 3-alkoxyalkanal into the corresponding 3-alkoxyalkanol; and (4) a process which comprises bringing a gas produced by the oxidation of propylene or isobutylene into contact with an alcohol, conducting the reaction of the gas with the alcohol to form the corresponding 1,1,3-trialkoxyalkane, and subjecting it to hydrolysis and hydrogenation.

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Tokuyama, Japan

Naoya Kawano