Basf Aktiengesellschaft

Rudolf Irnich

Gerd Kaibel

Kaspar Bott

Herwig Hoffmann

Otto Kratzer

Walter Himmele

Klaus Volkamer

Horst Hartmann

Kurt Schneider

Karl Fischer

Eberhard Schaefer

Klaus Kuessner

Hans-Georg Scharpenberg

Horst Buelow

Formamide is prepared continuously from methyl formate and ammonia, pure methanol being recovered, by a process wherein

Continuous preparation of furmamide

Formic acid is recovered, by distillation, from its mixtures with solvents of the general formula I ##STR1## where R.sup.1 is hydrogen, methyl, ethyl or vinyl and R.sup.2 and R.sup.3 are each alkyl, cycloalkyl, aryl or aralkyl, or R.sup.2 and R.sup.3 together form a 1,4- or 1,5-alkylene group, in each case of not more than 8 carbon atoms, with the provisos that the sum of the number of carbon atoms in R.sup.2 and R.sup.3 is 7 to 14 and that only one of these radicals is aryl, by a method in which the distillation is carried out in the presence of a carboxamide II which is selected from the group consisting of formamide, acetamide, propionamide and the same compounds substituted by N-methyl or N,N-dimethyl, and which has a boiling point lower than that of the solvent I.

Recovery of formic acid by distillation

A process for the preparation of acetic acid esters CH.sub.3 --CO--O--R.sup.1 (I, R.sup.1 =an organic radical other than methyl and ethyl) by alkali-catalyzed trans-esterification of an acetic acid ester CH.sub.3 --CO--O--R.sup.2 (II, R.sup.2 =methyl or ethyl) with an alcohol R.sup.1 --OH (III), accompanied by elimination of the alcohol R.sup.2 --OH (IV), wherein

Continuous preparation of acetic acid esters

Acid constituents, eg. H.sub.2 S and CO.sub.2 or their mixtures, are removed from industrial gases or natural gases by means of a washing agent which contains the methyl isopropyl ethers of polyethylene glycols. The washing can be carried out with simultaneous drying of the gas, especially in the case of natural gases, since the anhydrous ethers are able to absorb water.

Removal of CO.sub.2 and/or H.sub.2 S from gases

A process for the production of anhydrous or substantially anhydrous formic acid by hydrolysis of methyl formate which is carried out in a column having an upper fractionating section, a middle hydrolysis section and a lower extraction section and in which

Production of anhydrous or substantially anhydrous formic acid

Dimethyl carbonate is obtained pure, from its solutions in methanol, by extractive distillation carried out with a temperature of from 60.degree. C. at the top to 250.degree. C. at the bottom of the column and employing, as the extractant, an aprotic organic liquid which is substantially inert toward dimethyl carbonate, boils at above 100.degree. C. at standard pressure, is miscible with dimethyl carbonate in all proportions and has a dielectric constant .epsilon. of from 4 to 90 and a dipole moment .mu. of from 1.5 to 5 Debye.

Growing community of inventors

Bobenheim, Germany

Rudolf Irnich