Formaldehyde → 2-Butyl-2-ethyl-1,3-propanediol

Participants

Reaction Steps

BEPD was prepared by a semi-batch process out of 2-ethylhexanal (2-EH), having a purity of over 90 weight-%, and formaline. The concentration of the formaline aqueous solution was 37 weight-% HCHO and it contained 10 weight-% CH3OH. First, 1207 g (9.225 moles) of 2-EH and 1911 g (23.546 moles) of HCHO were fed into the reactor to make up the reaction mixture, after which 927 g (11.125 moles) in total of sodium hydroxide was fed into the reaction mixture. The concentration of the sodium hydroxide aqueous solution was 48 weight-%, and it was fed for 6 hours at three input rates, namely 93 g/h (1.1161 moles per hour) during the first hour of the reaction (beginning at time T1), 135 g/h of NaOH (1.6201 moles/h; beginning at time T2) during the following two hours and, finally, 188 g/h (2.2562 moles/h; beginning at time T3) during the third to the 6th hour.

Provenance & Evidence