Patent ID: 11958794
Assignee: T.EN PROCESS TECHNOLOGY, INC
Field: Organic fine chemistry (Chemistry)
Classification: CPC C  B  Y | IPC B  C

Claim 0:
1. A catalytic process for producing a lower glycol comprising at least one of ethylene glycol and propylene glycol from a carbohydrate-containing feed that comprises at least one of aldose- and ketose-yielding carbohydrate, said process comprising:
(a) continuously or intermittently supplying the feed to a reaction zone having therein dissolved tungsten compounds at least one of which is homogeneous, tungsten-containing retro-aldol catalyst and at least one heterogeneous hydrogenation catalyst, said liquid medium being at catalytic conversion conditions including the presence of dissolved hydrogen, to produce a reaction product containing said lower glycol and one or more higher boiling point coproducts comprising sorbitol, erythritol, threitol and glycerin;
(b) continuously or intermittently withdrawing liquid medium that contains reaction product and dissolved tungsten compounds from the reaction zone;
(c) subjecting at least a portion of the withdrawn liquid medium to one or more unit operations to remove at least a portion of the lower glycol in a separated fraction and provide a retained liquid phase containing dissolved tungsten compounds and higher boiling point coproducts with a mass ratio of higher boiling coproducts to tungsten compounds calculated as the metal of greater than about 4:1; and
(d) contacting at least a portion of the retained liquid phase with an ionic resin for ion exclusion chromatography, to provide a first eluted fraction containing dissolved tungsten compounds and a mass ratio of higher boiling coproducts to tungsten compounds calculated as the metal of less than about 1:1, and contacting the ionic resin with sufficient solvent to provide at least one subsequent eluted fraction containing one or more higher boiling point coproducts and a lower concentration of tungsten compounds than that in the retained liquid phase.