Patent ID: 7807615

Claim:
A process for preparing polyol alkyl ethers by reacting compounds comprising at least three hydroxyl functionalities with olefins in the presence of acidic catalysts at temperatures of from 20 to 250° C. and pressures of from 0.5 to 10 bar, wherein olefins selected from the group consisting of internal, branched olefins of chain length C 12 , linear or branched α-olefins of chain length C 12 and C 14 , and mixtures thereof are present, and wherein the compounds comprising at least three hydroxyl functionalities are selected from the group consisting of sorbitol, trimethylolpropane, pentaerythritol, compounds of formula (IV), (V), (VI), (IX) and mixtures thereof in which t is 1 to 20, and which can be linear or branched.