Patent ID: 8846994

Claim:
A process for preparing low-odor n-butane, the process comprising: mixing a n-butane feedstock with an aqueous solution comprising an alkali metal hydroxide or an alkaline earth metal hydroxide to obtain a biphasic mixture; allowing the biphasic mixture to separate into an aqueous phase comprising a formate salt of the alkali metal or alkaline earth metal and an n-butane phase consisting essentially of n-butane, n-butenes and water; separating the aqueous phase from the n-butane phase; removing the water from the n-butane phase to obtain an anhydrous mixture of n-butane and n-butenes; and catalytically hydrogenating the anhydrous mixture to obtain the low odor n-butane; wherein a temperature of the biphasic mixture is from 15 to 120° C., and wherein the n-butane feedstock comprises n-butene, carbon monoxide, and formic acid in a content of from 0.001 to 1% by mass, and a content of the alkali metal hydroxide or alkaline earth metal hydroxide in the aqueous solution is from 0.5 to 30% by mass.