Hoechst Celanese Corporation

Celanese International Corporation

Rodolfo W Laurel

George C Seaman

Hung-Cheun Cheung

Carolyn Supplee

Disclosed is a process for acquiring crude trimethylolpropane (TMP) of low reacted color. TMP is generally prepared by the condensation of n-butyraldehyde and formaldehyde in an alkali solution. The mixture is then concentrated and placed through an extractor. It has been found that a high concentration of low color TMP is present in the extractor and may by obtained by taking a slip stream of hot organic/water/TMP from the extractor and allowing the mixture to cool and phase separate. Upon separation of the phases, TMP generally having an acid wash color of about or less than 5 GU is recovered from the water phase. Disclosed is use of a single and multistage extractor.

Process improvement to produce low color trimethylolpropane

This invention relates to a process for improving the color of trimethylolpropane (TMP) by extracting color-causing impurities generated in the reaction to produce TMP. This improved color TMP is characterized by a reduced acid wash color and phthalic anhydride color--color measurement tests commonly used in the industry for assessing product quality and suitability of the TMP for certain color sensitive end-uses.

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Corpus Christi, TX, United States of America

Rodolfo W Laurel