Abstract: Methacrylic acid and butyrolactone are manufactured by hydroformylation of allyl esters of lower carboxylic acids in the presence of rhodium catalysts and inert organic solvents, followed by oxidation of the resulting formyl compounds with molecular oxygen (e.g. with air) in the presence of lower fatty acids, without prior removal of the rhodium catalysts, and elimination of the carboxylic acid from the acyloxybutyric acids formed, at from 150.degree. to 500.degree.C, using catalysts such as aluminum oxide, silicates or active charcoal.

Abstract: An improved process for the production of aldehydes and alcohols by the oxo process comprising the reaction of olefinically unsaturated compounds with carbon monoxide and hydrogen at elevated temperatures and elevated pressures in the presence of carbonyl complexes of metals in Group VIII of the Periodic Table modified by trisubstituted organic phosphines and in the presence of alkali or alkaline earth metal salts of carboxylic acids, the improvement comprising the use of modifying agents which consist of trisubstituted organic phosphines containing one or more carboxylic acid groups, at least one of which is present in the form of its alkali metal or alkaline earth metal salt.

Abstract: Solutions of cobalt carbonyl and cobalt carbonyl hydride in organic solvents are prepared by treating aqueous solutions of cobalt salts with carbon monoxide and hydrogen at a temperature of from 50.degree. to 200.degree.C and a pressure of from 50 to 500 atmospheres in the presence of solvents which are sparingly water-miscible or are water-immiscible and which have a content of cobalt carbonyl, cobalt carbonyl hydride or mixtures thereof, the starting materials and the organic solvents being passed cocurrently through a zone in which a turbulent flow is maintained. The improvement includes using n-butanol as solvent. Solutions of cobalt carbonyl and cobalt carbonyl hydride in n-butanol are suitable as catalyst solutions for oxo syntheses.

Abstract: 1,6-Hexanediol is manufactured by hydroformylation of 1,3-butadiene by a process wherein an acetal of pent-3-en-1-al is formed in a first hydroformylation step in the presence of lower alkanols or alkanediols and of rhodium catalysts, and is then converted into 1,6-hexanediol in a second hydroformylation step in the presence of cobalt catalysts, followed by hydrogenation.

Abstract: An improvement in the process for the manufacture of predominantly straight-chain aldehydes by hydroformylation of olefinically unsaturated compounds of 2 to 20 carbon atoms with carbon monoxide and hydrogen in which, in a first stage, aqueous cobalt solutions are treated with carbon monoxide and hydrogen at temperatures of 50.degree. to 200.degree.C and pressures of 100 to 400 atmospheres in the presence of active charcoal, zeolites or basic ion exchangers which are charged with cobalt carbonyl, in a second stage cobalt carbonyl-hydride is extracted from the reaction mixtures thus obtained, at temperatures of 20.degree. to 180.degree.

Abstract: An improved process for the production of .alpha.,.omega.-dialdehydes by reaction of linear .alpha.,.omega.-diolefins having isolated double bonds with carbon monoxide and hydrogen at elevated temperature and at superatmospheric pressure in the presence of a cobalt carbonyl complex in which the improvement consists in supplying the cobalt to the reaction as cobalt carbonyl hydride dissolved in the .alpha.,.omega.-diolefin to be used or in an inert organic solvent and carrying out the reaction at a temperature of from 70.degree. to 130.degree.C.