Compositions comprising hydrofluorocarbons and their manufacture

Abstract

A process is disclosed for producing compositions including (a) a compound selected from the group consisting of CHF2CF3, CHF2CHF2, CH2FCF3, CH3CF3, CH3CHF2, CH2FCF2CHF2 and CHF2CF2CF2CHF2 and (b) at least one saturated halogenated hydrocarbon and/or ether having the formula: CnH2n+2-a-bClaFbOc wherein n is an integer from 1 to 4, a is an integer from 0 to 2n+1, b is an integer from 1 to 2n+2-a, and c is 0 or 1, provided that when c is 1 then n is an integer from 2 to 4, and provided that component (b) does not include the selected component (a) compound, wherein the molar ratio of component (b) to component (a) is between about 1:99 and a molar ratio of HF to component (a) in an azeotrope or azeotrope-like composition of component (a) with HF. This process involves (A) combining (i) the azeotrope or azeotrope-like composition with (ii) at least one fluorination precursor compound wherein the precursor component (ii) is the fluorination precursor to component (b); and (B) reacting a sufficient amount of the HF from the azeotrope or azeotrope-like composition (i) with precursor component (ii) to provide a composition containing components (a) and (b) in said ratio. In addition, compositions are disclosed comprising component (a) (e.g., CHF2CHF2), and component (b) wherein component (b) includes at least two compounds, at least one of which is an ether, and the molar ratio of component (b) to component (a) is between about 1:99 and a molar ratio of HF to component (a) in an azeotrope or azeotrope-like composition of component (a) with HF. Also disclosed is a process for recovering HF from a product mixture comprising HF and CHF2CHF2, which involves distilling the product mixture to remove all products which have a lower boiling point than the lowest boiling azeotrope containing HF and CHF2CHF2; and distilling said azeotrope to recover HF as an azeotropic composition containing HF and CHF2CHF2; and compositions of hydrogen fluoride in combination with an effective amount of CHF2CHF2 to form an azeotrope or azeotrope-like composition with hydrogen fluoride (e.g., compositions containing from about 70.5 to 75.5 mole percent CHF2CHF2).

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.