Abstract: The presently disclosed subject matter is a new technology, related to a simulated moving bed membrane reactor. This novel technology includes a reactor with two different separation techniques: i) chromatography (simulated moving bed—SMB); ii) selective permeable membrane (namely, pervaporation and permeation, among others) into a single device, allowing a significant increase in the unity productivity and considerable reduction of solvent consumption and consequently lowers downstream costs associated to the following separation units, for the same product purity and reactants conversion criteria. It has its main applications in the chemical industry, particularly, in the continuous production of oxygenated compounds as esters, acetals, ethers, carbonates, among others.

Abstract: The present invention is an industrial process for the preparation of acetals using a simulated moving bed (SMB) reactor system to accomplish the conversion of reactants (aldehyde and alcohol) and simultaneously, the separation of the reaction products (acetal and water) by selective adsorption. The SMB reactor consists of a set of interconnected columns packed with an acid solid (or mixture of acid solids: catalysts and adsorbents) effective for catalyzing the reaction between aldehydes and alcohols and for separating the reaction products by selective adsorption of at least one product.

Abstract: The present invention is an industrial process for the preparation of acetals using a simulated moving bed (SMB) reactor system to accomplish the conversion of reactants (aldehyde and alcohol) and simultaneously, the separation of the reaction products (acetal and water) by selective adsorption. The SMB reactor consists of a set of interconnected columns packed with an acid solid (or mixture of acid solids: catalysts and adsorbents) effective for catalyzing the reaction between aldehydes and alcohols and for separating the reaction products by selective adsorption of at least one product.