The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Feb. 22, 1994
Filed:
Mar. 12, 1992
Neville E Drysdale, Newark, DE (US);
Kang Lin, Newark, DE (US);
Thomas W Stambaugh, Newark, DE (US);
E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, Wilmington, DE (US);
Abstract
An improved process for converting oligomers of alphahydroxycarboxylic acids, such as glycolic and lactic acid, to dimeric cyclic esters, such as glycolide and lactide. The continuous process is conducted at reduced pressures and depolymerizing temperatures in a heated columnar depolymerization zone, coupled with an essentially unheated receiver for unconverted oligomer. By feeding the oligomer to the upper end of the column while coordinating the feed rate with the depolymerization temperature such that a fraction of the oligomer is converted to a vapor product stream containing the cyclic ester and another fraction of the oligomer exits the column at its lower end and passes to the receiver vessel, the dimeric cyclic ester is produced at high production rates and the oligomer is subjected to minimal thermal stress.