Eastman Chemical Company

Randy Lynn Jennings

Scott Donald Barnicki

Robert Thomas Hembre

Sumit Chakraborty

Steven J Adams

Michael Richard Laningham

Stijn Van De Vyver

Gerarld Wayne Ollis

Gerald Wayne Ollis

Disclosed is a process for recovering formic acid from a formate ester of a Cto Calcohol. Disclosed is also a process for producing formic acid by carbonylating a Cto Calcohol, hydrolyzing the formate ester of the alcohol, and recovering a formic acid product. The alcohol may be dried and returned to the reactor. The process enables a more energy efficient production of formic acid than the carbonylation of methanol to produce methyl formate.

Process for making formic acid utilizing lower-boiling formate esters

A process for preparing a variety of secondary and tertiary alkyl formate esters via the coupling of methanol and secondary (or tertiary) alcohols. Iron-based catalysts, supported by pincer ligands, are employed to produce these formate esters in high yields and unprecedentedly high selectivities (&#x3e;99%). Remarkably, the coupling strategy is also applicable to bulkier tertiary alcohols, which afford corresponding tertiary formate esters in moderately high yields and high selectivities.

Iron-catalyzed cross-coupling of methanol with secondary or tertiary alcohols to produce formate esters

Growing community of inventors

Gate City, VA, United States of America

Randy Lynn Jennings