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AssigneeEastman Chemical Company
InventorsAlan George Wonders, Thomas Young Lightfoot, Thomas Earl Woodruff, Charles Helton Hitchcock, David Lee Denton, Carl Norman McCurry
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Disclosed is an optimized process and apparatus for more efficiently and economically carrying out the liquid-phase oxidation of an oxidizable compound. Such liquid-phase oxidation is carried out in a bubble column reactor that provides for a highly efficient reaction at relatively low temperatures. When the oxidized compound is para-xylene and the product from the oxidation reaction is crude terephthalic acid (CTA), such CTA product can be purified and separated by more economical techniques than could be employed if the CTA were formed by a conventional high-temperature oxidation process.
A slurry composition containing terephthalic acid produced in a reaction medium within an oxidation reactor and withdrawn from an oxidation reactor, wherein the amount of solids in the reaction medium within the oxidation reactor ranges from 15 wt. % to 40 wt. % based on the weight of the reaction medium, and the amount of terephthalic acid solids produced in the reaction medium within the oxidation reactor is at least 95 wt. % of the total oxidation product in reaction medium, said slurry composition that is withdrawn from the oxidation reactor comprising a liquid mother liquor and solid crude terephthalic acid (CTA) particles, said CTA particles having been at least partly formed in said oxidation reactor, wherein said CTA particles comprise 4-carboxybenzaldehyde (4-CBA) in an amount ranging from at least 400 ppmw up to 15,000 ppmw, wherein a representative sample of said slurry contains benzoic acid (BA) which is present in an amount of less than 2,000 ppmw and has one or more of the following characteristics based on the combined solid and liquid slurry components:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.