Patent ID: 7863487

Claim:
A hydroformylation process for continuous production of a mixture of aldehyde products with control over a normal/branched (N/I) isomer ratio of the product aldehydes; the process comprising the steps of: contacting under continuous reaction conditions in a hydroformylation reaction fluid, one or more olefinically-unsaturated compounds, carbon monoxide, and hydrogen in the presence of a mixture of an organopolyphosphite ligand and an organomonophosphite ligand, at least one of said ligands being bonded to a transition metal to form a transition metal-ligand complex hydroformylation catalyst; the organopolyphosphite ligand comprising a plurality of phosphorus (III) atoms each bonded to three hydrocarbyloxy radicals, any non-bridging species of which consists essentially of an aryloxy radical (substituted or unsubstituted); the contacting further conducted in a manner comprising: (a) at a sub-stoichiometric molar ratio of organopolyphosphite ligand to transition metal such that said molar ratio is greater than 0 but less than 1.0/1; (b) at a super-stoichiometric molar ratio of organomonophosphite ligand to transition metal such that said molar ratio is greater than 2/1; (c) at a carbon monoxide partial pressure in a negative order region of a hydroformylation rate curve wherein rate of reaction decreases as carbon monoxide partial pressure increases, and wherein rate of reaction increases as carbon monoxide partial pressure decreases, the rate curve being measured on an identical hydroformylation process in the presence of the organopolyphosphite ligand but not the organomonophosphite ligand; and (d) varying the molar ratio of organopolyphosphite ligand to transition metal within the aforementioned sub-stoichiometric range while maintaining the molar ratio of organomonophosphite ligand to transition metal in the aforementioned super-stoichiometric range, so as to control continuously the normal/branched isomer ratio of the aldehyde products.