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:
Aug. 20, 2002
Filed:
Jul. 11, 2001
Gary P. Hagen, West Chicago, IL (US);
Michael J. Spangler, Sandwich, IL (US);
BP Corporation North America Inc., Chicago, IL (US);
Abstract
A particularly useful process which includes the steps of providing a feedstream comprising methanol, a soluble condensation promoting component capable of activating a heterogeneous acidic catalyst and a source of formaldehyde formed by conversion of methanol in the presence of a catalyst comprising copper and zinc, and heating this feedstream with the heterogeneous acidic catalyst in a catalytic distillation column to convert methanol and formaldehyde present to methylal and higher polyoxymethylene dimethyl ethers and to separate the methylal from the higher polyoxymethylene dimethyl ethers is disclosed. Advantageously, methylal and higher polyoxymethylene dimethyl ethers are formed and separated in a catalytic distillation column. By including within the column a section containing an anion exchange resin, an essentially acid-free product is obtained. Products can be used directly as a blending component, or fractionated, as by further distillation, to provide more suitable components for blending into fuel.