Patent ID: 7060860

Claim:
A process for the liquid phase hydroformylation of olefinically unsaturated compounds, comprising a step of reacting at least one olefinically unsaturated compound with hydrogen and carbon monoxide to form a hydroformylation effluent, said reacting being carried out under pressure with stirring and in the presence of at least one non-aqueous ionic liquid comprising at least one salt with general formula Q + A − in which Q + represents a quaternary ammonium cation and/or a quaternary phosphonium cation and/or a quaternary sulfonium cation and A − represents an anion, and in the presence of a catalyst comprising at least one complex of cobalt with at least one ligand selected from the group consisting of Lewis bases; and a step for decanting the final products, said process further comprising, between the reaction step and the decanting step, an intermediate step comprising depressurizing the hydroformylation effluent sufficiently slowly to transfer at least 50% of the cobalt complex from the organic phase to the non-aqueous ionic liquid phase.