Production of diisopropyl ether

• Main Authors: OWEN, HARTLEY, (NMN), HARANDI, MOHSEN NADIMI, STOOS, JAMES ARTHUR, RAGONESE, FRANCIS PAUL
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; French; German
• Published: 27.11.1991
• Subjects: ACYCLIC OR CARBOCYCLIC COMPOUNDS; APPARATUS THEREFOR; CHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROCESSES, e.g. CATALYSIS OR COLLOIDCHEMISTRY; CHEMISTRY; GENERAL METHODS OF ORGANIC CHEMISTRY; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; METALLURGY; ORGANIC CHEMISTRY; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PHYSICAL OR CHEMICAL PROCESSES OR APPARATUS IN GENERAL; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ARTCOLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS; THEIR RELEVANT APPARATUS; TRANSPORTING

In a diisopropyl ether production process the distillation step for the separation of aqueous IPA recovered from the DIPE extraction operations is modified to avoid carrying out the distillation under conditions that yield IPA-water azeotrope. The overhead and bottom streams from an aqueous IPA fractionation process operated under off-azeotrope conditions in DIPE production are recycled, respectively, to the DIPE reactor and extractor operations. Recycling the water and IPA overhead mixture eliminates the requirement for adding fresh water to the DIPE reactor. Returning the water and IPA bottom stream to the extractor reduces the requirement for distilled water addition to the extraction step. A less complex and costly aqueous IPA separation process results.