Reaction distillation apparatus and reaction distillation method

Organic compounds -- part of the class 532-570 series – Organic compounds – Carbonate esters

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Details

422194, 558274, C07C 6806, B01J 802, B01J 1000

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active

060574704

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to reactive distillation equipment and a reactive distillation method applicable to a relatively complicated reaction composed of at least two steps of equilibrium reactions.


BACKGROUND ART

In a conventional art, when the equilibrium of an equilibrium reaction is not biased toward the product system, the reaction efficiency (equilibrium conversion) is improved by biasing the equilibrium toward the product system through reactive distillation. For example, "Chemical Engineering" Vol. 57, No. 1, pages 77-79 (1993) explains the reactive distillation by presenting specific examples.
In general, when performing a relatively complicated reaction composed of at least two steps of equilibrium reactions, reactive distillation is carried out separately for each of the equilibrium reactions. For example, an International Laid-Open Patent Publication, No. WO091/09832, discloses a method of preparing diphenyl carbonates from dimethyl carbonate and phenol through two steps of equilibrium reactions. In this method, one reactive distillation column (reactive distillation equipment) is used for each equilibrium reaction, and therefore two reactive distillation columns are used in total.
However, in this conventional method, during the reactive distillation of the first-step equilibrium reaction for forming methyl phenyl carbonate from dimethyl carbonate and phenol, dimethyl carbonate as a raw material and methanol as a product form an azeotrope. Therefore, the equilibrium is not biased toward the product system, and the equilibrium reaction does not proceeds smoothly. Consequently, carbonate esters are not prepared efficiently. In addition, since two reactive distillation columns are used for the preparation of diphenyl carbonate, a problem arises, i.e., the cost of equipment and utility increases.
Thus, the above-mentioned conventional reactive distillation columns are used only for a relatively simple reaction. In other words, they are not used for a relatively complicated reaction composed of at least two steps of equilibrium reactions. Namely, there is very few known reactive distillation columns which are applicable to consecutive multiple reactions. In such a situation, there is a demand for reactive distillation equipment and reactive distillation methods applicable to a relatively complicated reaction composed of at least two steps of equilibrium reactions.
In order to solve the above-mentioned conventional problem, it is an object of the present invention to provide reactive distillation equipment applicable to a relatively complicated reaction composed of at least two steps of equilibrium reactions, and reactive distillation methods capable of performing such a reaction efficiently.


DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

In order to solve the conventional problem, the present inventors eagerly studied reactive distillation equipment and reactive distillation methods. The inventors found as a result of study that a relatively complicated reaction composed of at least two steps of equilibrium reactions is efficiently carried out through the processes mentioned below using reactive distillation equipment provided with at least a first feed section, a second feed section and a third feed section which are disposed on different plates in this order from the top of a column. Specifically, the relatively complicated reaction is performed efficiently by feeding a raw material (first raw material) having a higher boiling point between two kinds of raw materials provided for the equilibrium reaction from the first feed section and feeding the other raw material (second raw material) having a lower boiling point from the second feed section so as to execute a first equilibrium reaction, and by feeding a third raw material from the third feed section so as to carry out a second equilibrium reaction between the third raw material and a product having a higher boiling point than those of the first and second raw materials between the products produced by the first equilibrium reaction.

REFERENCES:
patent: 5679312 (1997-10-01), Jin et al.

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