Transetherification method

Abstract

Transetherification is carried out in a catalytic distillation reactor, wherein the catalytic structure also serves as a distillation structure, by feeding a first ether to the catalyst bed to at least partially dissociate it into a first olefin and a first alcohol while concurrently therewith feeding either a second olefin (preferably a tertiary olefin) having a higher boiling point than said first olefin or a second alcohol having a higher boiling point than said first alcohol to the catalyst whereby either the second olefin and the first alcohol or the first olefin and the second alcohol react to form a second ether which has a higher boiling point than the first ether, which second ether is concurrently removed as a bottoms in the concurrent reaction-distillation to force that reaction to completion, while the unreacted first olefin or first alcohol is removed in the overhead.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.