Patent ID: 7223374

Claim:
An apparatus for carrying out hydroformylation of olefinically unsaturated compounds, said apparatus comprising: at least one reactor, Al, for reacting at least one olefinically unsaturated compound with hydrogen and carbon monoxide to form a hydroformylation effluent in the presence of at least one non-aqueous ionic liquid, wherein said reactor includes means for putting the reactor contents under pressure and stirring the reactor contents, and wherein the reactor contains at least one catalyst comprising at least one complex of cobalt with at least one ligand selected from the group consisting of Lewis bases; at least one depressurization vessel, B 1 , separate from the reactor Al, for depressurizing the hydroformylation effluent sufficiently slowly to transfer at least 50% of the cobalt complex from the organic phase to the polar phase containing the non-aqueous ionic liquid phase; and at least one decanter, B 2 , for decanting the polar phase containing at least the non-aqueous ionic solvent containing at least the catalyst for recycling to reactor A 1 ; the reactor, depressurization vessel and decanter being operatively connected with one another by: at least one line 1 for introducing said at least one olefinically unsaturated compound to be hydroformylated and a carbon monoxide/hydrogen mixture into reactor A 1 ; at least one means for providing said at least one non-aqueous ionic liquid in said reactor A 1 , at least one line 2 for transferring the effluent from the reactor A 1 to the depressurization vessel B 1 ; at least one line 3 for sending the mixture of the organic effluent phase and the polar phase containing the non-aqueous ionic solvent from the depressurization vessel B 1 to the decanter B 2 ; at least one line 6 for returning the gas from the depressurization vessel B 1 to the reactor A 1 ; at least one line 5 for returning the polar phase containing at least the ionic liquid and the catalyst separated in decanter B 2 to the reactor A 1 ; and at least one line 7 for withdrawing the organic effluent phase containing synthesized reaction products from the decanter B 2 .