Process for the production of secondary alcohols
AssigneeToa Nenryo Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsYoshiharu Okumura, Tadamori Sakakibara, Katsumi Kaneko
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Abstract
Secondary alcohols are produced by the hydration of a n-olefin substantially free from an isoolefin in the presence as catalyst of an acidic cation exchange resin such as a sulfonated styrene-divinylbenzene copolymer and in the presence of an oxy acid or lactone thereof such as .gamma.-valerolactone. The process is especially useful for hydrating a n-butene feed or a feed consisting essentially of n-butenes and butane to produce secondary butyl alcohol.
Claims9
In a process for the production of secondary alcohols by hydrating a n-olefin selected from the group consisting of propylene and n-butene or a hydrocarbon mixture containing said n-olefin with water in the presence of an acidic cation exchange resin catalyst, the improvement which comprises using a feed which is substantially free from an isoolefin and carrying out the reaction in the presence of a C.sub.2 to C.sub.5 oxy acid or the lactones, lactides, methyl or ethyl esters thereof, or mixtures thereof in a proportion of 0.5 to 100 parts by weight to 1 part by weight of water.
The process according to claim 7 in which the resin is a sulfonated styrene-divinylbenzene copolymer.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.