METHOD FOR SEPARATING TRIOXANE FROM A MIXTURE CONTAINING TRIOXANE, FORMALDEHYDE AND WATER

• Main Authors: STROEFER, ECKHARD, OTT, MICHAEL, BLAGOV, SERGEJ, SIEGERT, MARKUS, LANG, NEVEN, GRUETZNER, THOMAS, HASSE, HANS, STAMMER, ACHIM, FRIESE, THORSTEN
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; French; German
• Published: 22.09.2010
• Subjects: CHEMISTRY; HETEROCYCLIC COMPOUNDS; METALLURGY; ORGANIC CHEMISTRY; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PHYSICAL OR CHEMICAL PROCESSES OR APPARATUS IN GENERAL; SEPARATION; TRANSPORTING

A process for removing trioxane from a mixture I of formaldehyde, trioxane and water, by a) distilling the mixture I in a first distillation stage at a pressure of from 0.1 to 2 bar to obtain a stream II which comprises formaldehyde and a stream III which comprises predominantly trioxane and additionally water and formaldehyde, b) mixing the stream III with a recycle stream VII which comprises predominantly trioxane and additionally water and formaldehyde to obtain a stream IIIa which comprises predominantly trioxane and additionally water and formaldehyde, c) distilling the stream IIIa, if appropriate after removing low boilers from the stream III or IIIa in a further distillation stage, in a second distillation stage at a pressure of from 0.2 to 10 bar, the pressure in the second distillation stage being at least 0.1 bar higher than the pressure in the first distillation stage, to obtain a stream IV of trioxane and a stream V which comprises predominantly trioxane and additionally water and formaldehyde, d) distilling the stream V in a third distillation stage at a pressure of from 0.1 to 4 bar to obtain a stream VI which comprises predominantly water and additionally formaldehyde, and the recycle stream VII which comprises predominantly trioxane and additionally water and formaldehyde, e) if appropriate, distilling the stream VI in a fourth distillation stage to obtain a stream VIII which comprises predominantly water, and a stream IX which comprises predominantly formaldehyde.