Method for producing polybutylene terephthalate

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9556307-B2
Application number	US-201414560800-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 4, 2014
Priority date	Jun 5, 2012
Publication date	Jan 31, 2017
Grant date	Jan 31, 2017

Abstract

The present invention aims to provide a method for producing polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) with an excellent color using biomass-derived 1,4-butanediol (BG). The invention relates to a method for producing PBT comprising a step of subjecting a diol component containing raw material 1,4-BG having a nitrogen content of 0.01 to 50 ppm by mass and a dicarboxylic acid component to esterification or ester-exchange reaction, and a polycondensation reaction step for obtaining PBT from the reactant, wherein the content of gamma butyrolactone in the raw material 1,4-BG is 1 to 100 ppm by mass.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for producing polybutylene terephthalate, the method comprising:
(a) subjecting a diol component comprising a biomass-derived raw material 1,4-butanediol having a nitrogen content of from 0.01 to 20 ppm by mass and a dicarboxylic acid component comprising terephthalic acid or an alkyl terephthalate to an esterification reaction or ester-exchange reaction,
(b) subjecting the reactant obtained in (a) to a polycondensation reaction, thereby obtaining polybutylene terephthalate, and
further comprising directly producing the biomass-derived raw material 1,4-butanediol or a biomass-derived crude 1,4-butanediol from at least one carbon source selected from the group consisting of glucose, fructose, xylose, and saccharose by a fermentation method, and
obtaining the biomass-derived raw material 1,4-butanediol by purifying the biomass-derived crude 1,4-butanediol before the subjecting (a),
wherein a content of gamma butyrolactone in the biomass-derived raw material 1,4-butanediol is from 1 to 100 ppm by mass.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the content of gamma butyrolactone in the crude 1,4-butanediol is from 101 ppm by mass to 2% by mass.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein a content of 1-acetoxy-4-hydroxybutane in the raw material 1,4-butanediol is from 1 to 99 ppm by mass.

4. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising producing the biomass-derived raw material 1,4-butanediol or the biomass-derived crude 1,4-butanediol from a biomass material using a non-natural microorganism biocatalyst, wherein the non-natural microorganism biocatalyst comprises a microorganism containing at least one exogenous nucleic acid fragment coding 4-hydroxybutanoic acid dehydrogenase, succinyl-CoA synthetase, CoA-dependent succinate-semialdehyde dehydrogenase or α-ketoglutarate decarboxylase and having a 4-hydroxybutanoic acid biosynthesis pathway and in which the microorganism comprises the exogenous nucleic acid fragment in an amount sufficient to secrete a monomer of 4-hydroxybutanoic acid.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein a content of the terephthalic acid or alkyl terephthalate based on the total of the dicarboxylic acid component is 80 mol % or more.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein a content of the biomass-derived raw material 1,4-butanediol is 80 mol % or more based on the total of the diol component.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the dicarboxylic acid component further comprises at least one other dicarboxylic acid.

8. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the diol component further comprises at least one other diol.

9. The method according to claim 4 , wherein the microorganism is selected from the group consisting of Escherichia coli, Anaerobiospirillum, Actinobacillus, filamentous fungi and yeast.

10. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the content of nitrogen in the biomass-derived raw material 1,4-butanediol is from 0.1 to 5 ppm by mass.

11. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the content of the gamma butyrolactone in the biomass-derived raw material 1,4-butanediol is from 1 to 50 ppm by mass.

12. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the content of the gamma butyrolactone in the biomass-derived raw material 1,4-butanediol is from 5 to 20 ppm by mass.

13. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the content of the gamma butyrolactone in the biomass-derived raw material 1,4-butanediol is from 150 ppm to 2% by mass.

14. The method according to claim 4 , wherein the content of 1-acetoxy-4-hydroxybutane in the raw material 1,4-butanediol is from 5 to 80ppm by mass.

15. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the polycondensation reaction is conducted at a temperature from 180° C. to 260° C. and a pressure from 10 kPa to 133 kPa for 0.5 hours to 5 hours in the presence of an esterification catalyst in a single step or multiple steps.

Assignees

• Mitsubishi Chem Corp
• Genomatica Inc

Inventors

• Utsunomiya Masaru
• Izawa Yusuke
• Konishi Norikazu
• Matsuzono Shinichiro
• Suzuki Takayuki
• Japs Michael
• Burk Mark
• Clark Warren

Classifications

• C12Y102/04002

  Oxoglutarate dehydrogenase (succinyl-transferring) (1.2.4.2), i.e. alpha-ketoglutarat dehydrogenase · CPC title

• C08G63/78

  Preparation processes · CPC title

• C12N9/0008

  acting on the aldehyde or oxo group of donors (1.2) · CPC title

• C12Y602/01004

  Succinate-CoA ligase (GDP-forming) (6.2.1.4) · CPC title

• C12N9/93

  Ligases (6) · CPC title