Patent ID: 6303829
Filing Date: 2001-10-16
Classification: C07B,C07C,Y02P

Abstract:
A process for separating one or more products from a reaction product fluid comprising a metal-organophosphorus ligand complex catalyst, optionally free organophosphorus ligand, said one or more products, one or more nonpolar reaction solvents and one or more polar reaction solvents, wherein said process comprises (1) subjecting said reaction product fluid to fractional countercurrent extraction with at least two immiscible extraction solvents, said at least two immiscible extraction solvents comprising at least one nonpolar extraction solvent and at least one polar extraction solvent, to obtain a nonpolar phase comprising said metal-organophosphorus ligand complex catalyst, said optionally free organophosphorus ligand, said one or more nonpolar reaction solvents and said at least one nonpolar extraction solvent and a polar phase comprising said one or more products, said one or more polar reaction solvents and said at least one polar extraction solvent, and (2) recovering said polar phase from said nonpolar phase; wherein (i) the organophosphorus ligand has a partition coefficient Kp1 between the nonpolar phase and the polar phase expressed as follows: ##EQU13##in which Kp1 is a value of greater than about 5, and (ii) the one or more products have a partition coefficient Kp2 between the nonpolar phase and the polar phase expressed as follows: ##EQU14##in which Kp2 is a value of less than about 2.0.