Patent ID: 8614356

Claim:
A process for preparing tolylenediamine by hydrogenating dinitrotoluene with hydrogen in the presence of a suspended catalyst in a vertically upright reactor, at the upper end of which is arranged a motive jet nozzle through which the reaction mixture drawn off from the reactor bottom, via an external loop, is sprayed into the upper region of the reactor and then flows into a central inserted tube which is arranged in the longitudinal direction of the reactor, flows through the latter from the top downward and flows upward again outside the inserted tube in an internal loop motion, with a heat exchanger in the interior of the reactor, through which cooling water flows, and absorbs some of the heat of reaction as it does so, with a feed for the dinitrotoluene at the upper end of the reactor and a feed for the hydrogen at the lower end of the reactor, and wherein, in addition to the heat exchanger arranged in the interior of the reactor, a further heat exchanger is used in the external loop, in which water absorbs the rest of the heat of reaction by indirect heat exchange with the reaction mixture, which comprises utilizing the heat of reaction to raise steam with a pressure of at least 4 bar gauge by performing the hydrogenation of dinitrotoluene to tolylenediamine at a temperature of greater than or equal to 180° C., and wherein the dinitrotoluene is supplied to the reactor into the gas phase above the liquid level or wherein the motive jet nozzle is configured as a two jet nozzle, and wherein the dinitrotoluene is supplied to the motive jet nozzle.