Patent ID: 7005552

Claim:
A process for preparing an ethylene oxide (EO)-capped polyol comprising: a) charging a reactor with starter containing acid sufficient to acidify residual basicity in the reactor from a previous batch of ethylene oxide (EO)-capped polyol, with the proviso that no precipitate is formed by reaction of the acid with the residual basicity; b) adding and activating a double metal cyanide (DMC) catalyst; c) feeding one or more oxyalkylenes to the reactor to produce a DMC-catalyzed polyol; d) adding a basic catalyst to the double metal cyanide (DMC)-catalyzed polyol to form a mixture comprising less than about 3 wt. %, based on the total weight of the mixture, of the basic catalyst, or adding to the double metal cyanide (DMC)-catalyzed polyol, an unrefined polyol prepared in the presence of a basic catalyst to form a mixture comprising less than about 25 wt. %, based on the total weight of the mixture, of base-catalyzed polyol and less than about 3 wt. %, based on the total weight of the mixture, of the basic catalyst; and e) ethoxylating the mixture at a temperature of from about 85° C. to about 220° C. to produce an EO-capped polyol.