초록 ▼

Ethanol is produced from acetic acid by esterifying the acetic acid with an olefin having at least 4 carbon atoms, hydrogenating the ester obtained into ethanol and a higher alcohol having at least 4 carbon atoms, removing the ethanol, dehydrating the higher alcohol back to the original olefin and r

Ethanol is produced from acetic acid by esterifying the acetic acid with an olefin having at least 4 carbon atoms, hydrogenating the ester obtained into ethanol and a higher alcohol having at least 4 carbon atoms, removing the ethanol, dehydrating the higher alcohol back to the original olefin and recycling the olefin to esterify the acetic acid.

대표청구항 ▼

Method of producing ethanol from acetic acid which comprises the steps: (1) contacting acetic acid with an olefinically unsaturated hydrocarbon having about 4 to about 10 carbon atoms, in the presence of a catalytic amount of an acidic esterification catalyst whereby an ester is obtained; (2) hydrog

Method of producing ethanol from acetic acid which comprises the steps: (1) contacting acetic acid with an olefinically unsaturated hydrocarbon having about 4 to about 10 carbon atoms, in the presence of a catalytic amount of an acidic esterification catalyst whereby an ester is obtained; (2) hydrogenating the ester from step (1) whereby a mixture of ethanol and a higher alcohol containing the same number of carbons as the olefinically unsaturated hydrocarbon from step (1) is obtained; (3) separating the mixture of step (2) by fractional distillation into ethanol and the higher boiling alcohol; (4) recovering the ethanol; (5) dehydrating the higher boiling alcohol into the original olefinically unsaturated hydrocarbon used in step (1); and (6) recycling the olefinically unsaturated hydrocarbon from step (5) with fresh acetic acid back to step (1) to repeat the process of esterification.