Abstract: Process for carbonylating an alcohol or reactive derivative thereof, by (a) feeding one or more feed streams to a reaction zone, at least one feed stream containing an alcohol or reactive derivative thereof, and at least one feed stream contains CO, (b) maintaining in the reaction zone a temperature and pressure sufficient to allow an exothermic carbonylation reaction to occur to produce a carboxylic acid or carboxylic acid anhydride, (c) removing one or more product streams containing carboxylic acid or carboxylic acid anhydride from the reaction zone, and (d) transferring heat contained in one or more product streams to a first heat-exchange stream. Heat is transferred from a second heat-exchange stream to a feed stream of step (a) before the feed stream is fed to the reaction zone, and the temperature of the second heat-exchange stream before heat transfer is lower than that of the one or more product streams.

Abstract: A process for the carbonylation of an alcohol and/or reactive derivative thereof, in which one or more reaction zone feed streams are fed to a reaction zone in which exothermic carbonylation takes place to produce one or more product streams. Heat from at least a portion of the one or more product streams is fed to a first heat-exchange stream, such as a supply of pressurised steam. The process is characterised by heat from a second heat-exchange stream, having a temperature lower than that of the one or more product streams, being transferred to a reaction zone feed stream, so that the one or more product streams comprise heat originating from the second heat-exchange stream and heat generated by the exothermic carbonylation reaction. Thus, heat originating from the second heat-exchange stream can be transferred to the first heat-exchange stream, resulting in reduced heat loss and greater process efficiency.

Abstract: A process for the production of acetic acid which comprises carbonylating methanol and/or a reactive derivative thereof in one or more reactors in a liquid reaction composition comprising iridium carbonylation catalyst, ruthenium promoter, methyl iodide co-catalyst, methyl acetate, acetic acid and water. The liquid reaction composition from the one or more reactors is passed to one or more flash separation stages to form (i) a vapor fraction comprising condensable components and a low pressure off-gas comprising carbon monoxide and (ii) a liquid fraction comprising iridium carbonylation catalyst, ruthenium promoter and acetic acid solvent. The condensable components are separated from the low pressure off-gas. The concentration of carbon monoxide in the low pressure off-gas is maintained according to the formula: Y>mX+C wherein Y is the molar concentration of carbon monoxide in the low pressure off-gas, X is the concentration in ppm by weight of ruthenium in the liquid reaction composition, m is about 0.

Abstract: Acetyl anhydrides such as acetyl sulfate are produced by a process for comprising contacting methane and carbon dioxide in an anhydrous environment in the presence of effective amounts of a transition metal catalyst and a reaction promoter, and an acid anhydride compound, and optionally an acid. The acetyl anhydride can be contacted with water to produce acetic acid or with an alcohol to produce a product comprising an acetate ester and that may also comprise acetic acid. Optionally, water in stoichiometric amounts or less, with respect to the acetic anhydride, may be fed to a continuous process of this type to produce some acetic acid in situ.

Abstract: In a process for the production of acetic acid by carbonylation of methanol and/or a reactive derivative in the presence of a Group VIII noble metal carbonylation catalyst, methyl iodide co-catalyst at a concentration of at least 2 wt %, optionally at least one promoter at least a finite concentration of water, methyl acetate at a concentration of at least 8% w/w and acetic acid product, the separability of an upper (aqueous) layer and a lower (organic) layer in the decanter of the light ends column is achieved by maintaining the concentration of acetic acid in the condensed overhead vapor fraction passed to the decanter at or below 8 wt %.

Abstract: A method of controlling the carbon monoxide flow to a reactor wherein acetic acid is produced continuously by feeding carbon monoxide through a control valve and methanol and/or a reactive derivative thereof, there being maintained in the reactor a liquid reaction composition comprising at least 5% w/w methyl acetate, a finite concentration of water, from 1 to 30% w/w methyl iodide, a Group VIII noble metal catalyst, optionally at least one promoter and acetic acid comprising the remainder of the composition which method comprises the steps of: (i) measuring the carbon monoxide flow through the control valve; (ii) performing a background calculation to arrive at a time-averaged carbon monoxide flow rate; (iii) adding a constant value to the time-averaged carbon monoxide flow to arrive at a maximum allowable carbon monoxide flow rate; and (iv) feeding information comprising the calculated maximum allowable carbon monoxide flow rate to a control system which operates in a manner such that the carbon monoxid

Abstract: In the process for the production of acetic acid by carbonylation of methanol and/or a reactive derivative thereof the water concentration in the liquid reaction composition is maintained at a steady-state concentration by at least one process step selected from the group consisting of (i) recovery and disposing of water from at least part of the overhead process stream from the light ends column and (ii) replacing at least a portion of the methanol feed with a component selected from the group consisting of methyl acetate, dimethyl ether, acetic anhydride and mixtures thereof. The recovered aqueous effluent from this and other processes may be purified of carboxylic acid by reactive distillation with at least one C.sub.1 to C.sub.3 alcohol.