Patent ID: 8877983

Claim:
A process for the preparation of a 1-alkyl glycerol ether of the formula (I) in a high yield with reduced impurities, comprising the stages of: (a) obtaining an acylated alkyl glycerol ether by reacting, at a temperature of more than 40° C., a reaction mixture comprising: (i) an alkyl glycidyl ether of the formula (II) in which R is an unbranched or branched C 1 - to C 24 -alkyl group, where the alkyl group may be substituted with one or more hydroxy and/or C 1 - to C 4 -alkoxy group(s) and/or the alkyl chain may be interrupted by up to four oxygen atoms, (ii) a carboxylic acid having 1 to 10 carbon atoms, (iii) a catalytic amount of a strong acid having a pKa value of less than 4, said strong acid not being a carboxylic acid, and (iv) at most 0.7 mol of water per mole of alkyl glycidyl ether of the formula (II), said alkyl glycidyl ether of the formula (II) and said a carboxylic acid present in a molar ratio of 1:0.5 to 1:10; and (b) transesterifying the acylated alkyl glycerol ether obtained from stage (a) by adding an excess molar amount of aliphatic alcohol having 1 to 4 carbon atoms to form a reaction product, distilling off an alkyl ester of the carboxylic acid and of the aliphatic alcohol and excess aliphatic alcohol formed from the transesterifying, neutralizing the strong acid remaining with the reaction product with alkalizing agent, and fractionally distilling in order to obtain the alkyl glycerol ether of the formula (I).