Process for purifying and recovering contaminated catalyst solution

Abstract

The disclosure relates to a process for purifying and recovering a contaminated catalyst solution which is obtained in the carbonylation of methyl acetate and/or dimethylether, the catalyst solution containing carbonyl complexes of noble metals of group VIII of the Periodic System of the elements, quaternary heterocyclic aromatic nitrogen compounds or quaternary organophosphorus compounds as organic promoters, undistillable organic contaminants as well as acetic acid, acetic anhydride and ethylidene diacetate. To this end, the disclosure provides for the catalyst solution to be distillatively freed from its volatile constituents and for the remaining solid distillation residue to be water-treated, the noble metal/carbonyl-complex being precipitated together with the organic contaminants and the organic promoter becoming dissolved; for the precipitated and contaminated noble metal/carbonyl-complex to be removed by filtration and to be freed from the organic contaminants by extraction with aliphatic ethers; for the organic promoter to be recovered by evaporating the water or extracting it with halogenated hydrocarbons and for these latter to be evaporated; and for the purified noble metal/carbonyl-complex and the recovered organic promoter to be recycled into the carbonylation reaction.