Patent ID: 8153849

Claim:
A method of recovering a triarylmethyl halide from a sucrose derivatization process, comprising the steps of (a) triarylmethylating the sucrose in the presence of an amine to form 6,1′,6′-tri-O-triarylmethylsucrose and triarylmethylated sucrose byproducts; (b) acylating the 6,1′,6′-tri-O-triarylmethylsucrose in the presence of an amine to form a 6,1′,6′-tri-O-triarylmethylsucrose pentaester and triarylmethylated sucrose ester byproducts; (c) separating from the output of step (b) as separate distinct components i) the 6,1′,6′-tri-O-triarylmethylsucrose pentaester, and ii) a mixture comprising the triarylmethylated sucrose ester byproducts and the amine of step (b); (d) contacting a first byproduct component comprising the mixture of step (c) ii) with aqueous hydrogen halide under conditions sufficient to remove the amine therefrom, thereby forming a washed byproduct component comprising one or more triarylmethylated sucrose impurities; (e) contacting the washed byproduct component with hydrogen halide to cleave triarylmethyl groups from the one or more triarylmethylated sucrose impurities and thereby form a first crude triarylmethyl halide component comprising triarylmethyl halide and one or more spent triarylmethyl compounds selected from the group consisting of triarylmethyl alcohol, triarylmethyl esters, and triarylmethyl ethers; (f) contacting the first crude triarylmethyl halide component with hydrogen halide to convert the one or more spent triarylmethyl compounds to triarylmethyl halide, thereby forming a purified triarylmethyl halide component; and (g) recovering the triarylmethyl halide from the output of step (f).