Process For Producing Ethanol From Impure Methanol

Abstract

In a first embodiment, the present invention relates to a process for producing ethanol. The process comprises the step of contacting a carbon monoxide feed and an impure methanol feed in a reactor under conditions effective to produce a crude acetic acid product. The impure methanol feed comprises more than 0.15 wt. % of impurities. The process further comprises the step of separating the crude acetic acid product to form an intermediate acetic acid product and at least one derivative stream. The intermediate acetic acid product may comprise acetic acid and at least one of the impurities from the impure methanol feed. The process further comprises the step of hydrogenating at least a portion of the intermediate acetic acid product to produce a crude ethanol product. The hydrogenation is preferably conducted over a catalyst.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.