Great Lakes Chemical Corporation

Davy Process Technology Limited

Kvaerner Process Technology, Ltd.

Paul Willett

Michael A Wood

Brian Tarbit

Brian Adger

Stephen William Colley

John Scarlett

Robert Wild

Paul Appleton

Mohammad Shariff

Michael Anthony Wood

A process for activating a reduced manganese copper catalyst comprising treating the catalyst at a temperature of more than 300&#xb0; C. to about 400&#xb0; C. with hydrogen.

Process

A process for the co-production of a diol product (e.g. butane-1,4-diol) and a cyclic ether (e.g. tetrahydrofuran) by hydrogenation of an aliphatic diester or lactone feedstock (e.g. dimethyl or diethyl maleate), which contains a minor amount of acidic material, such as the corresponding monoester. The process utilizes a plurality of hydrogenation zones connected in series, each containing a charge of a granular ester hydrogenation catalyst. The catalyst in the first hydrogenation zone is tolerant of a minor amount of acidic material, while the catalyst in the second hydrogenation zone provides enhanced yields of cyclic ethers compared to the catalyst of the first hydrogenation zone. The catalyst in a third hydrogenation zone exhibits low selectivity towards conversion of the diester to at least one by product (e.g. 2-4'-hydroxybutoxy-tetrahydrofuran). The feedstock is supplied to the first hydrogenation zone as a vaporous stream comprising hydrogen and there is recovered a final product stream from the third hydrogenation zone which is substantially free of the hydrogenatable material and contains the diol, cyclic ether and other by products, the selectivity to the cyclic ether being greater in the final product stream than in the first intermediate product stream.

Process for the co-production of aliphatic diols and cyclic ethers

A process is described for the continuous recovery of substantially pure pentane-1,5-diol from a crude product stream (,) containing pentane-1,5-diol and &dgr;-valerolactone. The feed stream (,) is continuously supplied to a vaporization zone (,) maintained under temperature and pressure conditions effective for the vaporization of pentane-1,5-diol and conducive to the thermal decomposition of reaction products of &dgr;-valerolactone thereby to form a vaporous stream. The resulting vaporous stream is continuously supplied to an intermediate section of a distillation zone (,). A reflux stream (,) of dimethyl glutarate is fed to an upper section of the distillation zone (,) and an overhead vapor product stream (,) comprising &dgr;-valerolactone and dimethyl glutarate is taken. Also an intermediate stream (,) comprising substantially pure pentane-1,5-diol is taken from the distillation zone (,), while from the bottom section of the distillation zone there is recovered a bottoms product (,).

Process for preparing pentane-1,5-diol

Process for the purification of butane-1,4-diol

Disclosed is a process for producing an ultra-white N,N'-ethylene-bis(tetrabromophthalimide) product useful as a flame retardant. Also disclosed is a flame retardant composition predominantly comprised of N,N'-ethylene-bis(tetrabromophthalimide) and having unprecedented color and high purity.

Ultra white N,N'-ethylene-bis(tetrabromophthalimide) and its production

Ultra white N,N'-bis(tetrabromophthalimide) and its production in

Disclosed is a process for producing an ultra-white N,N'-ethylene-bis(tetrabromophthalimide) product useful as a flame retardant. Also disclosed is a flame retardant composition predominantly comprised of N,N'-ethylene-bis(tetrabromophthalimide) and having a yellowness index of about 4 or less.

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Witton le Wear, United Kingdom

Paul Willett