Patent ID: 8912349

Claim:
A process for the manufacture of a dialkyl furan-2,5-dicarboxylate (DAFD) composition comprising: a. feeding a furan-2,5-dicarboxylic acid (“FDCA”) composition to an esterification reactor; and b. in the presence of methanol, conducting an esterification reaction in the esterification reactor to form a crude diester composition comprising dialkyl furan-2,5-dicarboxylate (“DAFD”) and methanol, wherein said esterification reaction is carried out by reacting the FDCA composition and methanol in the esterification reactor at a temperature in the range of 150° C. to 250° C.; c. during said esterification reaction, removing a crude diester composition stream from said esterification reactor, wherein said crude diester composition stream comprises at least a portion of the crude diester compound and at least a portion of the methanol; d. during said esterification reaction, introducing at least a portion of said crude diester composition stream into an alcohol separation zone that is separate from the esterification reactor; e. separating at least a portion of the methanol from the crude diester composition in the alcohol separation zone to produce a DAFD rich composition comprising DAFD solids, wherein the concentration of DAFD in the DAFD rich composition is higher than the concentration of DAFD in the crude diester composition on a combined solid and liquid basis, wherein said separating is at least partly carried out by a physical separation process selected from the group consisting of flash evaporation, distillation, membrane separation, and combinations thereof; and f. treating the DAFD rich composition in a purification zone separate from said alcohol separation zone to produce a purified DAFD product composition, wherein said treating is at least partly carried out by crystallizing DAFD in the DAFD rich composition and recovering the crystallized DAFD via solid-liquid separation.