Process for preparing isopropanol in high yields and with a high degree of purity

1) A process for producing isopropanol through a catalytic hydrogenation reaction of acetone, the process including the following steps:

• a) feeding an adiabatic reactor from top to bottom, with a feed stream including a gaseous current comprising hydrogen and a liquid current comprising fresh acetone;
• b) passing the feed stream of step (a) through a fixed catalytic bed, contained inside the reactor, so as to obtain a reactor outlet effluent including a liquid phase and a gaseous phase, said catalytic bed operating in a trickle-flow regime and comprising at least one metallic copper based catalyst;
• c) separating the effluent leaving the reactor by splitting the liquid phase from the gaseous phase;
• and
• d) recycling a part of the liquid phase obtained in step (c), reintroducing said part, named recycling stream, into the liquid current of step (a), so that the ratio between the mass flow rates of the recycling stream and fresh acetone, named recycling ratio, satisfies the following equation:
• -
• 1
• +
• 1
• WHSV
• [
• h
• -
• 1
• ]
• ⁢
• (
• e
• -
• ?
• ?
• +
• 13.23
• )
• ≤
• m
• R
• m
• ?
• ≤
• -
• 1
• +
• 1
• WHSV
• [
• h
• -
• 1
• ]
• ⁢
• (
• e
• -
• ?
• ?
• +
• 14.27
• )
• (
• I
• )
• ?
• indicates text missing or illegible when filed
• wherein:
• mR is the mass flow rate of the recycling stream;
• mA is the mass flow rate of fresh acetone;
• WHSV is the hourly mass flow rate of the fresh acetone stream divided by the mass of the catalyst in kg;
• T is the temperature measured in Celsius degrees at the beginning of the catalytic bed present in the reactor.