Patents by Inventor Claus Hechler

Claus Hechler has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 12290768
    Abstract: The invention relates to an apparatus for carrying out mass transfer processes, comprising a column having at least two inlet pipes for introducing a gaseous phase, where separation-active internals are accommodated in the column and a column section extends from the at least two inlet pipes to the separation-active internals, in which section a coverage of a cross-sectional area of the column is less than 25%, based on the total cross-sectional area, and where the at least two inlet pipes have a height offset which corresponds to not more than three times an inlet pipe diameter and the at least two inlet pipes are at an angle (?) of from 60° to 150° to one another and have asymmetry with respect to one another. The invention further relates to a use of the apparatus and also a method for designing the apparatus.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 17, 2021
    Date of Patent: May 6, 2025
    Assignee: BASF SE
    Inventors: Bernd Metzen, Christian Kunkelmann, Ortmund Lang, Marvin Kramp, Claus Hechler
  • Publication number: 20250084950
    Abstract: The invention relates to an apparatus for controlling the temperature of fluids, comprising a wall (3), a first insulation layer (9), means of temperature control (13), and a second insulation layer (11), where the wall (3) is in contact on one side with the fluid of which the temperature is to be controlled and the first insulation layer (9) has been applied to the side of the wall (3) facing away from the fluid, and the means of temperature control (13) are disposed between the first insulation layer (9) and the second insulation layer (11).
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 10, 2022
    Publication date: March 13, 2025
    Inventor: Claus HECHLER
  • Publication number: 20250011273
    Abstract: A process for the production of higher (meth)acrylic esters, comprises an esterification step of esterifying (meth)acrylic acid with an alcohol to obtain a crude (meth)acrylic ester, the (meth)acrylic acid containing trace amounts of acetic acid; and purification steps of purifying the crude (meth)acrylic ester. The purification steps comprise introducing crude (meth)acrylic ester into the side of a low boiler column with a rectifying section disposed above the feed point of the crude (meth)acrylic ester and a stripping section disposed below the feed point; withdrawing purified (meth)acrylic ester from the low boiler column; withdrawing a low boiler fraction from the top of the low boiler column, the low boiler fraction comprising alcohol and acetic ester and less than 10 wt.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 17, 2022
    Publication date: January 9, 2025
    Inventors: Claus HECHLER, Ortmund LANG, Horst HOFMANN
  • Publication number: 20240198263
    Abstract: The invention relates to a centrifugal droplet separator for separating liquid droplets out of a gas stream, comprising a shell (1) having a circular cross section and a vertical longitudinal axis (11), an upper hood (2) that bounds the shell (1) at the top and has a gas exit port (7) for the gas stream cleaned in the centrifugal droplet separator, a drip plate (8) disposed beneath the gas exit port (7), a lower hood (10) that bounds the shell (1) at the bottom and has a liquid exit port (4) for removal of the deposited liquid droplets, and an inlet (3) that opens tangentially into the shell (1) for supply of the gas stream, wherein there are at least two nozzles (9) for feeding a stabilizer liquid into the interior of the centrifugal droplet separator, the respective nozzle outlet (15) of which is disposed between the tangential inlet (3) and the drip plate (8) in vertical direction, where the main spraying direction (12) of the nozzles (9) is directed upward at an internal angle of 0 to 60° relative to t
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 19, 2022
    Publication date: June 20, 2024
    Inventors: Yunfei ZHOU, Ortmund LANG, Matthias Wilhelm MEIER, Cornelis Hendricus DE RUITER, Marvin KRAMP, Gregor GRACKIEWICZ, Josef MACHT, Markus GITTER, Claus HECHLER
  • Publication number: 20240067596
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a continuous process for obtaining 2-ethylhexyl acrylate (2-EHA) from a mixture (1) that is liquid under an absolute pressure in the range from 0.5 to 100 bar and has a temperature in the range from 0 to 300° C., comprising 2-EHA, at least one high boiler, at least one homogeneous catalyst, and at least one low boiler, wherein the mixture (1) is depressurized by a pressure-maintenance device (3) to an absolute pressure level in the range from 0.1 to 10 bar, wherein the resulting two-phase gas/liquid mixture (16) is continuously supplied to a helical-tube evaporator (4) in which, at a temperature in the range from 50 to 300° C., the 2-EHA content of the liquid phase of the two-phase gas/liquid mixture is reduced by partial evaporation, this being accompanied by a parallel increase in the 2-EHA content of the gas phase of the two-phase gas/liquid mixture, and the two phases are discharged in the form of a resulting two-phase gas/liquid output stream (17).
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 24, 2022
    Publication date: February 29, 2024
    Inventors: Ortmund LANG, Claus HECHLER, Cornelis DE RUITER, Marvin KRAMP, Dominik HERBRECHT
  • Publication number: 20230249098
    Abstract: The invention relates to an apparatus for carrying out mass transfer processes, comprising a column having at least two inlet pipes for introducing a gaseous phase, where separation-active internals are accommodated in the column and a column section extends from the at least two inlet pipes to the separation-active internals, in which section a coverage of a cross-sectional area of the column is less than 25%, based on the total cross-sectional area, and where the at least two inlet pipes have a height offset which corresponds to not more than three times an inlet pipe diameter and the at least two inlet pipes are at an angle (?) of from 60° to 150° to one another and have asymmetry with respect to one another. The invention further relates to a use of the apparatus and also a method for designing the apparatus.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 17, 2021
    Publication date: August 10, 2023
    Inventors: Bernd METZEN, Christian KUNKELMANN, Ortmund LANG, Marvin KRAMP, Claus HECHLER
  • Patent number: 10941103
    Abstract: A process for continuously preparing a butyl acrylate H2C?CH—C(?O)OR, with R=n-butyl or isobutyl, wherein aqueous 3-hydroxypropionic acid is converted under dehydrating and esterifying conditions in the presence of the corresponding butanol R—OH in a reactor with a rectification column and butyl acrylate formed, unconverted butanol and water used and formed are distilled off overhead as a ternary azeotrope, after separation into a liquid aqueous phase and liquid organic phase each of the aqueous and organic phases is at least partly discharged, and the organic phase comprising the butyl acrylate and the butanol is subjected to distillative separation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 13, 2018
    Date of Patent: March 9, 2021
    Assignee: BASF SE
    Inventors: Ortmund Lang, Tim Blaschke, Christian Raith, Michael Schafranka, Claus Hechler
  • Patent number: 10906862
    Abstract: A process for isolating pure butyl acrylate from crude butyl acrylate, which is carried out in a dividing wall column having separation-active internals and a vaporizer, and in which: a dividing wall is arranged in a longitudinal direction of the column to form an upper joint column region, a lower joint column region, an inflow section having a side feed point and an offtake section having a side offtake point; a ratio of an amount of liquid at an upper end of the dividing wall going to an enrichment section and a stripping section of the column is set in the range from 1:0.2 to 1:5; and a ratio of an amount of vapor streams at a lower end of the dividing wall going to the stripping section and the enrichment section of the column is set in a range from 1:0.5 to 1:2.0.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 11, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 2, 2021
    Assignee: BASF SE
    Inventors: Ortmund Lang, Bernd Metzen, Claus Hechler
  • Patent number: 10894223
    Abstract: Process for isolating pure 2-ethylhexyl acrylate or pure 2-propylheptyl acrylate from the corresponding crude alkyl acrylate by distillation, wherein the process is carried out in a dividing wall column (1) which has separation-active internals and vaporizer (7) and in which a dividing wall (8) is arranged in the longitudinal direction of the column to form an upper joint column region (9), a lower joint column region (14), an inflow section (10, 12) having a side feed point (2) and an offtake section (11, 13) having a side offtake point (3), the column has a number of theoretical plates in the range from 10 to 60, where the number of theoretical plates of the dividing wall column (1) relates to the sum of the theoretical plates in the joint upper column region (9), the joint lower column region (14) and the inflow section (10, 12), the side feed point (2) for the corresponding crude alkyl acrylate is arranged at a theoretical plate in the region commencing at least two theoretical plates above the bottommost
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 11, 2017
    Date of Patent: January 19, 2021
    Assignee: BASF SE
    Inventors: Ortmund Lang, Bernd Metzen, Claus Hechler
  • Patent number: 10730823
    Abstract: A process for isolating pure tert-butyl (meth)acrylate from crude tert-butyl (meth)acrylate by distillation, wherein the process is carried out in a dividing wall column having separation-active internals and a vaporizer and in which a dividing wall is arranged in the longitudinal direction of the column to form an upper joint column region, a lower joint column region, an inflow section having a side feed point, and an offtake section having a side offtake point, where the column has from 20-80 theoretical plates and the ratio of the amount of liquid at the upper end of the dividing wall going to the enrichment section and the stripping section of the column is set in the range from 1:0.2 to 1:5.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 11, 2017
    Date of Patent: August 4, 2020
    Assignee: BASF SE
    Inventors: Ortmund Lang, Bernd Metzen, Claus Hechler
  • Publication number: 20200239400
    Abstract: A process for continuously preparing a butyl acrylate H2C?CH—C(?O)OR, with R=n-butyl or isobutyl, wherein aqueous 3-hydroxypropionic acid is converted under dehydrating and esterifying conditions in the presence of the corresponding butanol R—OH in a reactor with a rectification column and butyl acrylate formed, unconverted butanol and water used and formed are distilled off overhead as a ternary azeotrope, after separation into a liquid aqueous phase and liquid organic phase each of the aqueous and organic phases is at least partly discharged, and the organic phase comprising the butyl acrylate and the butanol is subjected to distillative separation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 13, 2018
    Publication date: July 30, 2020
    Applicant: BASF SE
    Inventors: Ortmund LANG, Tim BLASCHKE, Christian RAITH, Michael SCHAFRANKA, Claus HECHLER
  • Publication number: 20200094160
    Abstract: Process for isolating pure 2-ethylhexyl acrylate or pure 2-propylheptyl acrylate from the corresponding crude alkyl acrylate by distillation, wherein the process is carried out in a dividing wall column (1) which has separation-active internals and vaporizer (7) and in which a dividing wall (8) is arranged in the longitudinal direction of the column to form an upper joint column region (9), a lower joint column region (14), an inflow section (10, 12) having a side feed point (2) and an offtake section (11, 13) having a side offtake point (3), the column has a number of theoretical plates in the range from 10 to 60, where the number of theoretical plates of the dividing wall column (1) relates to the sum of the theoretical plates in the joint upper column region (9), the joint lower column region (14) and the inflow section (10, 12), the side feed point (2) for the corresponding crude alkyl acrylate is arranged at a theoretical plate in the region commencing at least two theoretical plates above the bottommost
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 11, 2017
    Publication date: March 26, 2020
    Applicant: BASF SE
    Inventors: Ortmund LANG, Bernd METZEN, Claus HECHLER
  • Publication number: 20200095185
    Abstract: A process for isolating pure butyl acrylate from crude butyl acrylate, which is carried out in a dividing wall column having separation-active internals and a vaporizer, and in which: a dividing wall is arranged in a longitudinal direction of the column to form an upper joint column region, a lower joint column region, an inflow section having a side feed point and an offtake section having a side offtake point; a ratio of an amount of liquid at an upper end of the dividing wall going to an enrichment section and a stripping section of the column is set in the range from 1:0.2 to 1:5; and a ratio of an amount of vapor streams at a lower end of the dividing wall going to the stripping section and the enrichment section of the column is set in a range from 1:0.5 to 1:2.0.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 10, 2017
    Publication date: March 26, 2020
    Applicant: BASF SE
    Inventors: Ortmund LANG, Bernd METZEN, Claus HECHLER
  • Publication number: 20190330137
    Abstract: Process for isolating pure tert-butyl (meth)acrylate from crude tert-butyl (meth)acrylate by distillation, wherein the process is carried out in a dividing wall column (1) which has separation-active internals and vaporizer (7) and in which a dividing wall (8) is arranged in the longitudinal direction of the column to form an upper joint column region (9), a lower joint column region (14), an inflow section (10, 12) having a side feed point (2) and an offtake section (11, 13) having a side offtake point (3), the column has a number of theoretical plates in the range from 20 to 80, where the number of theoretical plates of the dividing wall column (1) relates to the sum of the theoretical plates in the joint upper column region (9), the joint lower column region (14) and the inflow section (10, 12), the side feed point (2) for the crude tert-butyl (meth)acrylate is arranged at a theoretical plate in the region commencing at least two theoretical plates above the bottommost theoretical plate and ending at least
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 11, 2017
    Publication date: October 31, 2019
    Applicant: BASF SE
    Inventors: Ortmund LANG, Bernd METZEN, Claus HECHLER
  • Patent number: 10301252
    Abstract: A process for continuously preparing the tert-butyl ester of an ethylenically unsaturated carboxylic acid, by a) reacting an ethylenically unsaturated carboxylic acid with isobutene in the presence of an acidic catalyst to give an esterification mixture; b) removing the acidic catalyst; c) removing low-boiling components; and d) supplying a tert-butyl ester-comprising liquid to a distillation apparatus and subjecting it to purifying distillation in the distillation apparatus, where d1) in the distillation apparatus the tert-butyl ester-comprising liquid is separated into a tert-butyl ester-comprising gaseous top product and a carboxylic acid-comprising liquid bottom product; d2) the tert-butyl ester-comprising gaseous top product is at least partly condensed and the condensate is recycled partly as reflux to the distillation apparatus; d3) the carboxylic acid-comprising liquid bottom product is recycled at least partly to step a); d4) carboxylic acid-comprising liquid bottom product is drawn off and passed to
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 28, 2016
    Date of Patent: May 28, 2019
    Assignee: BASF SE
    Inventors: Catharina Horstmann, Claus Hechler, Gregor Grackiewicz, Bernd Schall
  • Publication number: 20190002389
    Abstract: A process for continuously preparing the tert-butyl ester of an ethylenically unsaturated carboxylic acid, by a) reacting an ethylenically unsaturated carboxylic acid with isobutene in the presence of an acidic catalyst to give an esterification mixture; b) removing the acidic catalyst; c) removing low-boiling components; and d) supplying a tert-butyl ester-comprising liquid to a distillation apparatus and subjecting it to purifying distillation in the distillation apparatus, where d1) in the distillation apparatus the tert-butyl ester-comprising liquid is separated into a tert-butyl ester-comprising gaseous top product and a carboxylic acid-comprising liquid bottom product; d2) the tert-butyl ester-comprising gaseous top product is at least partly condensed and the condensate is recycled partly as reflux to the distillation apparatus; d3) the carboxylic acid-comprising liquid bottom product is recycled at least partly to step a); d4) carboxylic acid-comprising liquid bottom product is drawn off and passed to
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 28, 2016
    Publication date: January 3, 2019
    Inventors: Catharina HORSTMANN, Claus HECHLER, Gregor GWACKIEWICZ, Bernd SCHALL
  • Patent number: 10023520
    Abstract: A process for continuously preparing the tert-butyl ester of an aliphatic C1-C4 carboxylic acid comprises: a) the reaction of an aliphatic C1-C4 carboxylic acid with isobutene in the presence of an acidic catalyst to give an esterification mixture (G1); b) the partial evaporation of the esterification mixture (G1), giving a liquid first high boiler phase (SPh1) comprising the acidic catalyst, and a first vapor (B1) comprising tert-butyl ester; c) the fractional condensation of the first vapor (B1) by partially condensing the first vapor (B1) at a first pressure and a first temperature and obtaining a first condensate (K1), partially condensing the uncondensed second vapor (B2) at a second pressure and a second temperature and obtaining a second condensate (K2), the first temperature being 0 to 45° C. below the condensation temperature of the tert-butyl ester at the first pressure and the second temperature being 45 to 80° C.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 2016
    Date of Patent: July 17, 2018
    Assignee: BASF SE
    Inventors: Catharina Horstmann, Claus Hechler, Gregor Grackiewicz, Bernd Schall
  • Publication number: 20160289159
    Abstract: A process for continuously preparing the tert-butyl ester of an aliphatic C1-C4 carboxylic acid comprises: a) the reaction of an aliphatic C1-C4 carboxylic acid with isobutene in the presence of an acidic catalyst to give an esterification mixture (G1); b) the partial evaporation of the esterification mixture (G1), giving a liquid first high boiler phase (SPh1) comprising the acidic catalyst, and a first vapor (B1) comprising tert-butyl ester; c) the fractional condensation of the first vapor (B1) by partially condensing the first vapor (B1) at a first pressure and a first temperature and obtaining a first condensate (K1), partially condensing the uncondensed second vapor (B2) at a second pressure and a second temperature and obtaining a second condensate (K2), the first temperature being 0 to 45° C. below the condensation temperature of the tert-butyl ester at the first pressure and the second temperature being 45 to 80° C.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 31, 2016
    Publication date: October 6, 2016
    Applicant: BASF SE
    Inventors: Catharina HORSTMANN, Claus Hechler, Gregor Grackiewicz, Bernd Schall
  • Patent number: 9388118
    Abstract: A continuous process for preparing (meth)acrylates of C10-alcohol mixtures by reaction of glacial (meth)acrylic acid with an isomer mixture of C10-alcohols composed of 2-propylheptanol as the main isomer and at least one of the C10-alcohols 2-propyl-4-methylhexanol, 2-propyl-5-methylhexanol, 2-isopropylheptanol, 2-isopropyl-4-methylhexanol, 2-isopropyl-5-methylhexanol and/or 2-propyl-4,4-dimethylpentanol, and the use of a diester of dicarboxylic acids which have been esterified with N-oxyl-containing compounds as polymerization inhibitors in such a process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 27, 2013
    Date of Patent: July 12, 2016
    Assignee: BASF SE
    Inventors: Ulrich Jaeger, Volker Schliephake, Ortmund Lang, Jochen Petzoldt, Tobias Johannes Korn, Virginie Bette, Claus Hechler
  • Patent number: 8835575
    Abstract: A process for continuously producing water-absorbing polymer particles, wherein the monomer stems from at least two different sources and the monomer from one source differs from the monomer from at least one other source in the content of at least one secondary component.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 26, 2009
    Date of Patent: September 16, 2014
    Assignee: BASF SE
    Inventors: Wilfried Heide, Claus Hechler, Marc Gerardus Nicolas Grimmon, Filip Mees, Karl J. Possemiers