Preparation of acetic acid
AssigneeLyondell Chemical Technology, L.P.
InventorsWayne J. Brtko, Michael E. Fitzpatrick
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A process for producing acetic acid is disclosed. The process comprises carbonylating methanol to form a reaction mixture and flashing the reaction mixture to form a vapor stream and a liquid stream. The flash tank is equipped with a distillation column. The vapor stream comprises acetic acid and other volatile components but essentially no catalyst. The liquid stream comprises the catalyst and sufficient amounts of water and acetic acid to carry and stabilize the catalyst. The liquid stream is recycled to the carbonylation and the vapor stream is subjected to further separation to produce essentially pure acetic acid.
Claims15
A process for producing acetic acid, comprising:
- (a) carbonylating methanol in the presence of a catalyst to form a reaction mixture;
- (b) flashing and distilling the reaction mixture in a flash tank equipped with a distillation column to form a liquid stream comprising the catalyst at the bottom of the flash tank and a vapor stream at the top of the distillation column;
- and
- (c) recycling the liquid stream to step (a).
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.