Patent ID: 8865950

Claim:
A process for the hydration of olefins to produce alcohols, the process comprising the steps of: contacting an introduced olefin feedstock and an introduced water in a reaction zone at reaction conditions sufficient to produce an alcohol product, wherein said reaction zone includes a solid olefin hydration catalyst; and selectively removing at least a portion of the alcohol product from the reaction zone with a permeable membrane that is selective for the passage of alcohols, wherein the step of removing a portion of the alcohol product shifts the reaction equilibrium, where the olefin feedstock and the water upon introduction do not contain an acid catalyst, where the permeable membrane has a separation factor and an enrichment factor for tert-butanol, sec-butanol and mixed butanols, and where the permeable membrane has both a separation factor and an enrichment factor for each of tert-butanol, sec-butanol and mixed butanols, and each factor is greater than 1.0.