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:
Sep. 03, 2002
Filed:
Apr. 19, 2000
H. Robert Gerberich, Corpus Christi, TX (US);
R. Jay Warner, Corpus Christi, TX (US);
Celanese International Corporation, Dallas, TX (US);
Abstract
The present invention provides an improved method for the preparation of carboxylic acid esters of alkylene glycol monoalkyl ethers by the acid catalyzed esterification of the monoalkyl ether with a carboxylic acid. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the carboxylic acid and alcohol are reacted in a reactor/column and the resulting ester product is distilled into an overhead decanter/extractor as a single phase. A small amount of solvent, preferably a hydrocarbon is added to the mixture causing the resulting distillate to separate into two phases, one phase containing the desired product, the other containing primarily water. The process described is applicable to both batch and continuous operation and is not constrained by the difficulty of separating closely boiling azeotropes and results in substantially higher production rates than achieved by current processes.