GB786303A - Method of producing lower alcohols and ethers - Google Patents

Abstract

Lower alcohols, containing from one to eight carbon atoms, are produced with or without ethers by treating olefines and/or ethers with sulphuric acid, phosphoric acid or sulphonic acids, hydrolysing the reaction products by the addition of water and removing volatile hydrolysis products by distillation, at least the latter part of the distillation, i.e. when the concentration of alcohol has been decreased to 1 per cent or less by weight, being carried out in the presence of an insoluble finely divided inert adsorption material for the tarry products formed, and the remaining acid, after the complete or partial removal of the volatile products, with or without removal or destruction of the adsorption material being re-used, with or without previous re-concentration for further treatment of olefines and/or ethers. Suitable adsorption materials are carbon, sulphur, clays, glass, diatomaceous earth, barium sulphate, calcium sulphate, carborundum, or emery, all in the form of a fine powder, or fibres of asbestos or of polyvinylchloride. The adsorption material may be treated with a wetting agent before adding it to the acid mixture. In the examples a mixture of ethyl sulphates and sulphuric acid obtained by the absorption of ethylene in concentrated sulphuric acid is hydrolysed with water to which lamp black had been added and the volatile reaction products are distilled off; crude ethanol is obtained and the acid remaining may be filtered and re-used; (b) the process is carried out as in (a) using fuller's earth instead of lamp black; (c) the process is carried out as in (a) except that the lamp black is previously wetted with cetyl triethylammonium chloride; (d) the process was carried out as in (a) except that the lamp black was added to the partially hydrolysed mixture; and (e) propylene is absorbed in sulphuric acid and the resulting mixture is hydrolysed with water containing carbon black previously wetted with cetyl triethylammonium chloride to give crude isopropanol. It is stated that in all cases small amounts of the corresponding ethers are formed which are wholly or partially carried back into the process to serve as starting materials.