Patent ID: 7026517

Claim:
In the process for reacting an olefin with an alcohol to produce an ether comprising: (a) feeding a first material comprising an olefin and an alcohol to a distillation column reactor; (b) concurrently: (1) contacting said olefin and said alcohol with a catalytic distillation structure in a distillation reaction zone thereby catalytically reacting at least a portion of said olefin with said alcohol to form an ether and (2) fractionating a first mixture comprising said olefin, said alcohol and said ether; and (c) withdrawing the ether from the distillation column reactor; wherein the improvement comprises concurrently with (a) and (b) in said distillation reaction column: contacting a second mixture comprising olefin, said alcohol and said ether with a non catalytic distillation structure in a parallel and separate distillation non reaction zone to fractionate said product and withdrawing said ether from said distillation non reaction zone.