Process for carrying out a reaction in a reaction column

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10538476-B2
Application number	US-201615559509-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 17, 2016
Priority date	Mar 24, 2015
Publication date	Jan 21, 2020
Grant date	Jan 21, 2020

Abstract

A process for carrying out a reaction in a reaction column, said process comprising: providing a first reactant to the reaction column in the liquid phase; contacting said first reactant with an excess of a second reactant such that reaction takes place within the reaction column to form a low boiling product and a high boiling product, at least a portion of said second reactant being provided to the reaction column in the vapour phase; recovering an overhead stream from at, or near, the top of the reaction column, said overhead stream comprising unreacted second reactant and the low boiling product; and recovering a bottoms stream from at, or near, the bottom of the reaction column comprising the high boiling product; wherein at least a portion of the heat required to vaporise the second reactant provided to the reaction column in the vapour phase is provided by heat exchange in a heat exchanger with a hot stream generated within the process other than a hot stream generated within the reaction column.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A process for carrying out a reaction in a reaction column, said process comprising:
providing a first reactant to the reaction column in the liquid phase;
contacting said first reactant with an excess of a second reactant such that reaction takes place within the reaction column to form a low boiling product and a high boiling product, a portion of said second reactant being provided to the reaction column in a vapour phase and another portion of said second reactant is provided to the reaction column as liquid;
recovering an overhead stream from at, or near, the top of the reaction column, said overhead stream comprising unreacted second reactant and the low boiling product; and
recovering a bottoms stream from at, or near, the bottom of the reaction column comprising the high boiling product,
wherein at least a portion of the heat required to vaporise the portion of the second reactant that is provided to the reaction column in the vapour phase is provided by heat exchange in a heat exchanger with a hot stream that is generated within the process, but that is not generated within the reaction column;
and,
wherein the portion of the second reactant that is fed as liquid to the reaction column is vaporised within a reboiler of the reaction column.

2. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the hot stream is an overhead vapour stream or an internal column vapour stream.

3. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the hot stream is a hot liquid stream generated by circulating a liquid stream over one or more packed beds in a distillation column.

4. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the distillation column is used to purify products.

5. The process according to claim 4 , wherein the distillation column is used to separate the high boiling product in the bottoms stream as directly recovered from the reaction column.

6. The process according to claim 4 , wherein the distillation column is used to separate the high boiling product in the bottoms stream after the bottoms stream undergoes one or more subsequent treatments.

7. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the heat exchanger used to vaporise the second reactant is a sole heat removal unit on a distillation column.

8. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the heat exchanger used to vaporise the second reactant is one of a plurality of heat removal units.

9. The process according to claim 8 , wherein a second and, where present, subsequent heat removal units, are utilised to produce steam or discharge heat to cooling water.

10. The process according to claim 8 , wherein two or more heat removal units are used to vaporise the second reactant at different temperatures and/or pressures.

11. The process according to claim 10 , wherein the vaporised second reactant at different temperatures and/or pressures is fed to different locations in the reaction column.

12. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the vaporisation of the second reactant occurs by passing the stream containing the second reactant in heat exchange with a hot product draw stream removed from a distillation column which is used to separate the high boiling product in the bottoms stream that is either directly recovered from the reaction column or that has undergone one or more subsequent treatments.

13. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the vaporisation of the second reactant may occur by passing the stream containing the second reactant in heat exchange with steam which has been flashed from waste condensate streams at or near atmospheric pressure.

14. The process according to claim 1 , wherein one hot stream is used to vaporise at least a portion of the second reactant.

15. The process according to claim 1 , wherein a plurality of hot streams is used to vaporise at least a portion of the second reactant.

16. The process according to claim 15 , wherein the plurality of hot streams are combined and fed to the same heat exchanger.

17. The process according to claim 15 , wherein the plurality of hot streams are fed to two or more separate heat exchangers.

18. The process according to claim 15 , wherein the two or more separate exchangers are in series.

19. The process according to claim 15 , wherein the two or more separate heat exchangers are located on separate second reactant streams.

20. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the heat exchanger includes a control system which includes a pressure control which will allow the pressure to be varied as the second reactant is vaporised.

21. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the process is an esterification reaction.

Assignees

• Johnson Matthey Davy Technologies Ltd
• Johnson Matthey Plc

Inventors

• Hiles Andrew George
• Andersson Rikard Umberto
• Williams Michael Gavin John

Classifications

• C07C67/08 Primary

  by reacting carboxylic acids or symmetrical anhydrides with the hydroxy or O-metal group of organic compounds · CPC title

• C07C29/149

  with hydrogen or hydrogen-containing gases · CPC title

• B01D3/346

  the gas being used for removing vapours, e.g. transport gas · CPC title

• B01D3/007 Primary

  Energy recuperation; Heat pumps · CPC title

• B01D3/009

  in combination with chemical reactions · CPC title