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US 10,526,270 B2Granted
Process to produce acetic acid with recycle of water
AssigneeCelanese International Corporation
InventorsRonald D. Shaver, Yaw-Hwa Liu, Mark O. Scates
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A process for producing acetic acid is disclosed in which the recycle ratio of the mass flow of the light liquid phase recycled to the reactor to the mass flow of the aqueous recycle stream recycled to the reactor is less than or equal to 2.
Claims22
A process for producing acetic acid comprising:
- separating a reaction medium formed in a reactor in a flash vessel to form a liquid recycle and a vapor product stream;
- distilling the vapor product stream in a first column to obtain a side stream and a first low boiling overhead vapor stream, wherein the side stream comprises water in an amount from 1 to 3 wt. %;
- condensing the first low-boiling overhead vapor stream and biphasically separating the condensed stream to form a heavy liquid phase and a light liquid phase;
- distilling the side stream in a second column to obtain a purified acetic acid product and a second low-boiling overhead vapor stream;
- condensing the second low-boiling overhead vapor stream to obtain an aqueous recycle stream, comprising water in an amount of less than or equal to 90 wt. %;
- and
- recycling the second low-boiling overhead vapor stream to the reactor,
- wherein the recycle ratio of the mass flow of the light liquid phase recycled to the reactor to the mass flow of the aqueous recycle stream recycled to the reactor is from 0.15 to 2.
5 more elements
A process for producing acetic acid comprising:
- separating a reaction medium formed in a reactor in a flash vessel to form a liquid recycle and a vapor product stream;
- distilling the vapor product stream in a first column to obtain a side stream and a first low-boiling overhead vapor stream, wherein the side stream comprises water in an amount from 1 to 3 wt. %;
- condensing the first low boiling overhead vapor stream and biphasically separating the condensed stream to form a heavy liquid phase and a light liquid phase;
- distilling the side stream in a second column to obtain a purified acetic acid product and a second low boiling overhead vapor stream;
- condensing the second low-boiling overhead vapor stream to obtain an aqueous recycle stream, the second low-boiling overhead vapor stream comprises greater than or equal to 90% of the water in the side stream;
- and
- recycling the second low-boiling overhead vapor stream to the reactor,
- wherein the recycle ratio of the mass flow of the light liquid phase recycled to the reactor to the mass flow of the aqueous recycle stream recycled to the reactor is from 0.15 to 2.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.